Mirrored Images
by shizune
Summary: In an act of desperation, Naruto attempts to send his teammate back to the past to change things. He botches it, and now a Sakura from a world where Konoha was ruled by Orochimaru and then Itachi is surprised to find herself 12 and in a different world.
1. Chapter 1

Haruno Sakura woke with the worst hangover she could remember ever having, and no recollection of any reason for having it. It wasn't a combination that made her happy; it was a combination that made her roll back over in bed, pulling the blanket over her head.

"I said you're going to be late for your first day. Sakura, get UP."

She felt the blanket being tugged away, opening her eyes to try and remember the face of the person who DARED for later punishment, before her mouth dropped open slightly.

Her mother, dead for.. twelve years now, was giving her a glare that she couldn't remember receiving for a good three years before that. Only half remembered aside from that; she'd only been seven, after all. "You're not even going to have time for breakfast. You need to get dressed and go." Sakura shook her head in disbelief, echoing the last word. "Go?"

"To the academy. For your team assignment? You weren't up all night reading again, were you, Sakura? Or obsessing over that Uchiha boy again?"

That was too much for Sakura to take; clearly this had to be a genjutsu. She decided, rather than watching it play out further, to move out of this part of it. She had to congratulate whoever was doing it; Sakura hadn't expected seeing her mother again to hurt quite that way.

Sakura went to the window, not caring that she was in hideous (but comfortable) pink pajamas. She jumped out, ignoring the cries of her mother's surprise, and landed horribly by falling on her butt. She looked down at herself, confused.. "What the hell?"

Her hands were SMALL. So were other parts of her, and she had long hair, a style she'd never had because it got in the way. She had a bad case of bedhead right now, but that hardly mattered. What mattered was that she was in a very wrong body. The hair drifting in front of her eyes was definitely hers - she'd never met anyone else with the color - but she was young.

And... getting a team assignment? She'd avoided any of the normal paths for becoming a ninja, one of the benefits of being seen as a prodigy, but that would put her at somewhere between ten and thirteen.

"Damn it, Itachi, I'm not in the mood!" She shouted, angrily, knowing that the only person capable of putting her in a genjutsu this complex was the Hokage. Who she wouldn't put past doing it as a joke on her. That just got extremely odd looks from a few of the passers-by, so she rolled her eyes, heading towards where she knew the academy to be.

She didn't even bother with an illusion to hide her rather unformal appearance, sitting towards the back of the room, ignoring the incredulous looks she was getting from a few of the students, including a blond girl she vaguely recognized and another blond, that one some hyperactive boy.

"Sa.. Sakura-chan, what happened to you?" the boy asked, drawing her out of her contemplations of revenge against whoever was doing this.

She sat up sharply, hearing something in his voice, giving the boy a closer look. It was definitely him, though she'd never seen him at this age. "Naruto?"

"What is it, Sakura-chan?" He almost seemed to be cringing, but she just shook her head.

"Never mind. I'm fine, just woke up late." She offered him a smile, before turning back to the front of the class. She was seeing far too many ghosts in this genjutsu for her tastes. Did even Itachi know her this well? But, even if she could break it, she might not - it was deeply imaginative, an illusion that she could appreciate as a master artist admiring another artist's painting.

Sakura zoned back out, barely paying attention as the teams were announced. At least until she heard a name she hadn't really expected.

"Team Seven will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke."

She blinked, looking around the room. Naruto wasn't a surprise - she only half recognized the others she'd noticed in here, though she hadn't taken many close looks. But the weakling, Itachi's little tagalong brother?

She quickly found herself alone with the pair, as Jounin instructors picked up all of the other teams. Theirs was quite rudely late, and after hours of waiting she was glad to see Naruto at least try to trap him, though using an eraser instead of something more painful wasn't really much of a trick.

Sakura offered him a slight smile, while Sasuke brooded in his seat. Naruto gave her a slightly bewildered look before grinning back fiercely in return, and it was only a few more minutes before their jounin instructor poked his head in the door.

He fell for the trick, but that hardly mattered to Sakura, as she was in complete shock. Her instructor for this little exercise in illusion was, evidently, supposed to be a man she knew all too well, one who had come damn close to killing her, and she had come close to killing... The current leader of the rebellion against Konoha, Sharingan Kakashi.

* * *

Sakura was staring, she knew she was, but she still couldn't bring herself to believe the outrageousness of this. She'd gotten a full night's sleep, she'd swear she had, and there was no way that someone could have kept her in an illusion this complex, this long. Sakura would have recognized a sign of it by now, at least.

And now Kakashi was trying to put them through the stupidest test she could think of, at least if her skills were actually at the level of a newly graduated genin. It was probably meant to teach betrayal, by having them work together to get the bells and then stab one another in the back at the right time, but it was so obtusely done that she couldn't see how the man ever expected to have genin.

Of course, even if her chakra reserves seemed to be pathetically bad, and she felt more out of shape than she remembered being since she was eight, she could probably still surprise the man with a proper skill or two.

Assuming he wasn't holding her in this illusion to kill her, but it seemed unlikely - she had slept, twice! Whoever was doing it could have had her dead to rights.

"You'll need to come at me with killing intent, if you want to have a chance." She shouldn't have trouble with that, but Sakura knew she wasn't really going to be able to fight properly, given her completely screwed up balance and body. Genjutsu might work, if he kept that damned eye covered, but her reserves were so pathetically low...

No, best to try to catch him off guard. At the least, it would warn her if he really didn't know her abilities; there was no way he'd anticipate the strike. She'd only have one shot at it, likely.

And while she was trying to stop herself from caring about this test, it was a challenge, of sorts, and she'd never really been able to back down from challenges.

She smiled at Kakashi, who had announced the start of the test, trying to give him her best creepily cheerful in-battle grin.

"Don't you two think you might should hide?"

"I'm not going to hide from a proper fight!" Naruto said indignantly, and Sakura stepped back, watching him in amusement. She might as well see what he was supposed to be capable of, at least until she saw an opportunity. She was only going to have one chance to catch Kakashi completely unprepared, and even that depended on him parrying to show off instead of dodging or using a clone.

She was disappointed and impressed at the same time. Naruto had no real sense of style, but the brute force of his chakra was pretty damn impressive. If he had average control for a genin his age, his chakra levels were something like a hundred times her currently dreadful ones. Luckily, she didn't have average control, Sakura thought to herself, smirking a bit as Kakashi did something EXTREMELY age inappropriate to Naruto, sending him flying and howling in pain from the violation of his dignity. Kakashi had a kunai in hand. Hopefully he'd have an instinct to parry.

* * *

This group of would be genin was weirder than normal, Kakashi decided early on. Of course, he'd expected that when he'd seen the composition. The last Uchiha was probably the third's way of tempting him.

And if it had been the Uchiha alone, that might have been enough. The Kyuubi kid, though, was another matter. Kakashi was torn on the subject, but what he'd seen of the kid so far hadn't impressed him.

The girl was the least notable so far. She'd mostly just stared at him, and had had to be prompted twice to even give her name, much less anything else.

Of course, he'd half expected Naruto's open challenge, but Sakura had just stood out and watched without bothering to hide. He'd been almost impressed initially, thinking they were going to fight him together, but she hadn't helped Naruto, and now he was going to make her pay at least a little price for that. Before he failed them, some experience with genjutsu might do her good at the academy.

As he thought through that, she started charging him, faster than he'd expected from what he'd seen in a brief glance at her file, swinging her kunai around wildly at his head in a sloppy over extension. He moved to catch it with his own kunai, ready to trap the girl in her own head after he disarmed her.

There was a sickening sound, even as he felt the wound as it landed, quickly backing up. She'd managed to somehow slip past his guard and get to his neck! Kakashi looked at the girl, confused, as she grinned at him, then dared look at the weapon in his hand which had become quite imbalanced.

It was cut clean through.

He could feel the blood running down his throat, and he knew he was in some degree of trouble. Not bothering to pause to ask for help or explain, he clamped a hand to his throat, sprinting towards the hospital.

He managed to make it before passing out from blood loss, but not by much.

* * *

Sakura was annoyed with herself. She hadn't managed to actually kill Kakashi, and the three of them had to put up with almost an hour of questioning from an ancient man in the Hokage's uniform. It was bizarre to think about, really; Itachi was only eight years or so older than her, and while Orochimaru had been considerably older than that, he'd looked much younger.

On the bright side, as she was increasingly convinced this wasn't an illusion, but something much stranger, she had evidently passed the genin test. It was certainly a lot easier than the first one she remembered being subjected to.

And now she was walking home, to a home she barely remembered, aside from thoughts of that one night.

Orochimaru had still been Hokage then, of course, and she'd been nine, part of the accelerated program for three years, not having seen her parents since the day she'd earned her way there.

But the genin test was the same for all genin whose parents weren't ninja, herself included. She'd heard vague rumors in advance, but dismissed them, since she was officially listed as a ward of the village.

Sakura shut her eyes, dismissing the thoughts. They hadn't been her first kills, but they'd been among the first, and they were among the few she regretted.

She decided against going home, then, considering what other options she might have. It wasn't all that late, after all - it wasn't even dinner time yet, and the three of them had had an awkward meal with what Kakashi had brought to taunt them with. Noticing a flower shop, Sakura gave a smile, deciding to step inside. She could always make time for flowers, after all.

"Hey, Forehead girl, what do you want?" rang out a voice.

Sakura hissed, not having had anyone dare talk about that in years, flashing anger focused on the vaguely familiar blond girl. Yamanaka something. Emi? "What did you call me?"

The girl flinched, then looked nervously at her. "Calm down, Sakura. Honestly, what's with you lately? You didn't even say hello yesterday, or taunt me about being on Sasuke's team."

Sakura shook her head. "Why would I care about being on the weakling's team?"

That just drew a bewildered look from the blond. "Is.. what?" She asked in confusion. "The weakling? Even if you're trying to trick me somehow, I can't believe you'd say that. Sasuke's amazing."

"Ino-chan! Do you have a customer right now? Oh, hello, Sakura." An older man, probably Ino's father or possibly an uncle, walked into the store from the back. Sakura wasn't terribly upset to have the conversation interrupted, and the reminder of Ino's name was definitely helpful!

Though the girl was still giving her that look, promising future annoyance about the weakling.

Sakura just smiled and greeted the man, before deciding to ask after Ino's genin test. "So, did you pass whatever test your jounin set you?"

"Yeah. I can't believe I'm stuck with those two idiots, though. At least you only have one.. What about you?"

"Hmm? Well, we didn't complete the objective, but that's mostly because I cut his throat open and he fled to the hospital ten minutes in. The Hokage passed us. We should have just passed for putting up with waiting four hours for Kakashi to show up, though." She decided to leave out the less happy parts, but smiled brightly and happily as she thought of cutting Kakashi.

She made a note to check out whether finishing the job in the hospital here would be feasible. It was a fortress where she was from, and even though she didn't really respect the mednin, one would definitely notice any poisons she knew how to use. Probably just a nice fantasy.

She giggled a little to herself, before noticing that Ino and her father were staring at her. "W.. what?"

"You just.. kind of zoned out. Are you sure you're okay, forehead?"

Sakura forced back the killing intent this time, though some of it leaked out anyway. "..Ah, yeah. Just let me order some flowers." And she proceeded with her order, a smile on her face.

* * *

The Third Hokage, one of the strongest ninja in the world, rubbed his forehead.

He should have made Jiraiya take the job after the fourth's death. He could have had a nice retirement, on a beach somewhere.

Instead, he had an idiot jounin in the hospital and then off duty for most of the next week because he'd nearly bled out in a genin test, of all things.

To a blow inflicted by the weakest of the members assigned to his team. He'd felt obliged to pass the three after that, without consulting Kakashi; if they could do that, then he wanted them to be genin. He just wasn't certain he wanted Kakashi to be their instructor; he was considering sending Kakashi somewhere very unpleasant as an example. There was a six month mission involving bodyguarding a Lord's son on a hiking and hunting expedition that could work. It was only barely a b rank, though, and slated for a single chuunin.

With a sigh, he made the decision - Kakashi couldn't be gone that long, and hopefully having nearly killed him wouldn't cost Kakashi the respect of his team. Besides, the jounin that were available were mostly either unreliable for teaching purposes or too busy with more important duties.

Team Seven would have to just be delayed a week or so.

* * *

AN: I know, I know. Dancing needs a new chapter, too. This one bit my toes and made me start it first.

Basic premise; Naruto and Sakura are forced into attempting the desperate time travel featured in so many stories, good and bad.

And boy, howdy, do they fuck it up, sending back an alternate version of Sakura instead, drawn from a Konoha where things went very different in the past - Orochimaru was chosen to be the Fourth Hokage, and Konoha started on a mission to conquer the other ninja villages. A largely successful mission.

In that world, Sakura was identified as a protegy at an early age, after killing another student who was bullying her during recess. She, along with several others, eventually helped Uchiha Itachi overthrow Orochimaru for control of the village and its empire, becoming one of Konoha's top officers in the process.


	2. Chapter 2

Sakura yawned sleepily and stretched her hands over her arms, sitting in a tree. She'd been avoiding going back home since what passed for a genin test, having been informed that they would have most of a week off. It seemed silly to give them quite so much time, but if there were no other genin instructors...

Well, Kakashi would hopefully not hold a grudge. She'd been working on getting used to being so slow, and so SMALL, and having so little chakra again... At least her command of that was as solid as ever, even if she couldn't use as much of it as she'd been able to. That would come with time and effort.

She needed to clean up, however, before going to get some answers. Which is why she was breaking in to an apartment she was certain was empty, after she made certain noone was watching her... And she was, now. Hanging down from the branch she was sitting on, Sakura opened the window of the apartment with a kunai, slipping in and heading for where the restroom was.

"Mm.. I'm lucky this is like I remember from when I was a chuunin." She said to herself, as she moved towards the bathroom of a place she remembered living for three years. It was a single kunoichi living here now, in fact, and Sakura was hopeful she'd be able to get comfortably cleaned up after a night outside.

She hadn't even taken a good look at herself, for that matter, Sakura thought as she opened the door and saw a full-sized mirror. She should see just what kind of shape she was really in.

* * *

Haruno Sakura, one of two surviving jounin of Konoha, famed medicnin extraordinaire, and time traveler looked around in confusion. She didn't recognize where she was at ALL. It was a bathroom, that much was obvious, but it wasn't one she'd ever seen.

Of course, it was a miracle she could see anything. She looked back over at the mirror she'd been staring at, seeing the most cheerful thing she could think of. "It worked! Naruto, you're a genius, it worked, it worked!" Sakura felt like dancing - she was back, in her twelve year old self. She could do the mission Naruto and she had agreed had to be done, she could save almost everyone...

Where the hell was she? And why did she look like she'd been camping?

Sakura had a great memory, and she hadn't exactly seen a wide variety of places at this age - those she had seen that weren't daily parts of her life were in many ways seered into her mind, such as the forest of death or Wave.

Sakura shrugged, walking out of the room, frowning as she unlocked the door. Was this her place? It couldn't be; she was only twelve. She headed out of the door, oblivious to the window open in the room or the kunai sitting outside of it.

Sakura tried not to gawk at the village, back to the gorgeous state she remembered from when she was a child and genin, rather than the war zone it had become. She wanted to fall to her knees and weep at the sight, only barely holding herself back. She needed to figure out what day it was; she was supposed to come back on the day team assignments were handed out.

Leaping to the rooftops, she decided to try and give her body a bit of a test run. Her chakra control and enhancement of her strength would take her pretty damn far, but there was only so much she could do that way. She remembered how she was when she was twelve; she'd need a lot of work to get back to what she'd been.

She was a bit tired by the time she got to the academy, without using chakra for anything other than the jumps between rooftops, and that was even worse than what she had expected. Sakura had plenty of regrets about her academy years - actually, about quite a lot before becoming Tsunade's student - but she was going to add even more after this.

The academy was almost empty, to her surprise. Was she late? The classroom, at least, was totally empty.

Iruka was around, though, sitting in his office. She walked in, deciding she was either late or Naruto had totally messed up and she was on the wrong day. Best to play it neutral.

"Hello, Iruka-sensei!" she said, cheerily.

"Oh, Sakura!" Iruka said, offering her a smile. "Bored so soon? I heard about Kakashi being in the hospital."

Kakashi was in the hospital? Sakura tried her best to hide her surprise, but just smiled. "Well, yes, I thought about visiting him..."

Iruka leaned forward. "You shouldn't feel guilty, you know. A jounin really shouldn't be hurt by anything a genin can do; you couldn't have known. I'm sure he won't hold it against you."

Sakura wasn't able to hide her surprise at THAT little tidbit. She just stared at Iruka for a few seconds, before hurrying out of the office. It was probably odd behaviour, but she couldn't be bothered by that.

What could she have POSSIBLY done to put Kakashi in the hospital?

* * *

The hospital still used the same filing system she was used to, and the mednin who staffed it were competent enough, of course, though Sakura was certain that in a true crisis the lack of any truly stellar mednin would be felt. Tsunade, herself, and Shizune - in roughly that order, depending on the procedure, before the other two had died - were the three best mednin in Konoha by a decent margin, and the other two would be way off somewhere, fleeing Tsunade's debts.

That was why she'd only felt slightly guilty when she'd henged into a nurse and looked up where Kakashi was.

He wasn't in intensive care, at least, and when she snuck into his room he was asleep, bandages around his neck but no other signs of injury. She picked up his chart, looking it over to determine what had happened. Of course, it didn't contain information on HOW it had happened.

He'd had a vein in his neck cut through; something potentially fatal, though he was now mostly being kept due to massive blood loss. Overly cautious, to her; he should have been at home resting by now, instead of wasting a bed.. But how had that happened to a jounin at all? And why had Iruka thought it her fault?

Sakura set the chart back down, deciding the easiest way to get answers was to ask. Kakashi presumably wouldn't be too upset with her, and at least she had a date now - she was a few days late, but nothing too bad. Still plenty of time to determine if there were any way at all to change Sasuke's course, and do what she had to if there weren't.

She looked around, to reassure herself that noone was watching her, before leaning forward and administering chakra just so to wake Kakashi up.

"Kakashi-sensei, can you hear me?" She asked, smiling broadly. Whatever had happened, she'd hate to get off on the wrong foot with her sensei. She'd have to make it up to him.

The man was infuriating, though; she knew damn well he was awake now - to her medic's eyes, it might as well have been a flashing neon sign - but he was pretending to sleep. "Come on, Kakashi-sensei, I just wanted to apologize... They told me you'd be in here most of a week." Which was a lie; she'd gotten that from the charts. Presumably Team Seven's missions were delayed for that time, though, so she'd have been told.

The white-haired man opened his eye; she had no idea how he'd convinced the hospital staff to let him wear a mask in the hospital. "Mm? Oh, Sakura. Come to visit your new sensei? You should enjoy your time off, instead."

Sakura wasn't really surprised by that; she loved Kakashi as family, but he was kind of a crappy teacher. Sakura just shrugged it off, though. "I thought I should apologize, since I put you here... But I didn't really think I could do that to a jounin." She still wasn't certain WHAT she had done, other than a suspicion she'd landed a kunai on his throat or something along those lines. A lucky glancing blow in the right place, maybe. From the chart, it hadn't been far from a fatal wound. Maybe Kakashi would give her more information.

"Mm. I'm almost impressed. You can show me what you did again sometime, before we start real missions."

Sakura recognized the dismissal for what it was, but Kakashi wasn't really upset, at least... She just needed to find out what the hell had happened so she could satisfy Kakashi.

Heading out of the hospital, she mulled over it in her head. Maybe her skills had transferred partly first? A chakra scalpel might do that; it hadn't been a style she used much, but she knew how to do it. It would have been something her twelve year old self could have done, in terms of control; a rough blade, but enough if she completely caught Kakashi by surprise with it.

Still, Sakura couldn't think of a scenario where her twelve year old self could manage that. Hell, she'd have a hard time with Kakashi as she was before coming back, were he serious and in his prime, though she might be on a level with him. She just had surprise on her side, now.

It must have happened, though. Sakura couldn't think of a better idea.

Heading home, Sakura snuck in through her window, not wanting to see her parents. She was too utterly exhausted now to deal with that. A nap before trying to track down Naruto and Sasuke wouldn't hurt, after all.

* * *

In her dream, Sakura was tiny. Even more than she had been before. She couldn't have been more than six or seven, in fact, the age she'd been way, way back when she'd first started at the academy. When she'd first been picked on - it had lasted years before Ino had helped her.

Her pink hair was worn long in front, over her eyes, even. That was the first thing she noticed. The second was that she was sitting in mud.

Not sitting; she'd been pushed. A girl, a bully she remembered. Ami. Ami was pointing down at her.

"Stupid little forehead girl wants to be a ninja. But she's not. She's just a dork!" And Ami, going further than Sakura ever remembered actually happening, kicked at her. Sakura curled up, pain flashing through her mind... and felt something cold and metal against her back.

A voice, half familiar, echoed through her mind. "Hokage-sama likes new students to see death in their first year. Do you want it to be you, or someone else?"

Her hand pulled the kunai, too large for her in spite of being the smallest size made, out from its hiding place. Her vision going bright, angry red, she launched herself at Ami, tackling the other girl to the ground with the point, the other girls stopping in shock as their leader was assaulted, then running and screaming as Sakura buried the kunai in the other girl over and over.

Sakura was giggling when the instructors pulled her off; she'd stabbed Ami thirty-seven times by then.

* * *

Sakura woke up in a cold sweat. She hadn't thought of Ami in years; she'd made friends with Ino thanks to Ami, eventually, when Ino had defended her from the bully. She'd never even thought about the violence she'd just dreamed of doing then, but in the dream, even in her young self she'd thrilled from it, taking the sort of joy she'd occasionally since found at the edge of fighting for her life.

Sakura couldn't have been asleep more than an hour or two, though, she decided as she looked out the window. She needed to rest; she was completely exausted, still. She almost felt worse than before she had slept. Rolling over, she shut her eyes again, trying to sleep.

Rest never really came, though; she had nothing but nightmares, waking after each one, all blurring together other than the first.

It was barely dawn when she gave up, stumbling out of her window to head for something to eat and somewhere she could just relax. She knew a medicine that would give sleep without dreams; she'd just have to get some by that night. "Come on, Sakura, pull yourself together."

She was all too familiar with what lack of sleep could do to a person; still, she had no choice but to try and move on. Even if she still had some official time off, she should find Sasuke and Naruto, and scout the situation out. Naruto hadn't been sure if he would be sent back or not; she'd gotten the impression he thought it unlikely, but she'd made him leave room for himself in the ritual.

Either way, she wanted to see him.

Sasuke was another matter; she needed to be reminded just what he was.

She'd been sent back to stop him from destroying Konoha, after all, no matter how she had to do so.

Sakura shook her head, thinking back to the dream she could remember. It had seemed so real, and she could still feel the blood on her, in her hair, smell it...

She dropped down near a restaurant she liked that served breakfast before even thinking of how she was going to pay for it. She hadn't done missions yet, after all. Digging through her pockets and hoping, she found one of her emergency fund supplies. At least she'd had a little sense as a genin, she decided, even if it wasn't much. It would get her breakfast, without having to try to talk to her parents without crying. Sakura had her limits, after all.

* * *

Several hours later, Sakura was in a more cheerful mood. One of the advantages of being a Hokage's apprentice was that you learned quite a lot about the way things had been under previous administrations; Sakura had been able to take advantage of that to sneak in and get copies of her, Naruto, and Sasuke's records, which as fresh genin were relatively unsecure. Genin were almost encouraged to see their own, if they were smart enough to notice the lax security.

Included in hers a report on Kakashi's injury, and the questioning of herself afterwards. It wrote about a suspicion of a wind type technique, which was odd - she wasn't a wind sort, after all. At least, she hadn't been.. It was rather disheartening to see what some of the instructors had written on her, though. One of the more kind ones said she'd be great if she ever learned to focus on training; the least kind one, from her kunoichi arts instructor, claimed that she'd be dead within a year and wouldn't be worth a damn for anything political or involving seduction ever. Which might explain why she'd ended up on a heavy combat team.

Naruto's files included all sorts of details on his pranks. He had, when questioned, defended her as just doing what Kakashi had told her. Sasuke, on the other hand, had been silent in that regard. He was probably too shocked it had happened.

"I need to find Naruto.." She murmured to herself. She needed to start training, and she needed HIM to start training. "It says in here that the Third passed us without Kakashi's consent." Would that throw the team off? Not that they'd ever really been an amazing team. Just flashes of brillance with lots of smoke and fire around it.

Sakura mmed at the copied documents, not really having a secure place to hide them or a need to keep them. She'd learned what she needed, and she used one of the very few fire jutsus she knew to light them aflame before leaping away... And being, out of nowhere, grabbed and slammed face-first against a wall, her already tired head going dizzy.

"Did you really think a genin could break into my apartment and I WOULDN'T track you down?" hissed a voice in her ear, as she saw blood dripping into her eyes from a cut opened by the impact.

Damn. She'd been in ANKO'S apartment? It had been a lot more.. normal than she would have thought.

"Well? What do you have to say for yourself?" Sakura froze for a second, still trying to think of a good explanation when darkness descended upon her like a brick.

* * *

Sakura groaned as she rolled over in bed. Why was it so cold? How had she gotten here, for that matter?

"Ugh.. I was about to take a shower.." she muttered to herself, sitting up slowly, rubbing her eyes.

She had to look twice after opening them. She was definitely in a prison cell, though, even the second time. It was about the lowest security looking one she'd ever seen, though that could have easily been a deception.

Of course, making matters more difficult was the fact that she'd been left in only some hospital gown looking thing, awkward, obvious, and embarrassing. She could maintain a genjutsu to cover that up, but it probably wasn't worthwhile.

She hadn't been left with any weapons, of course, but she wasn't restrained either. They must have still thought her a genin; she could already think of a half dozen ways to get out of the cell. If she had any plans beyond that point, she might have even done it.

That failing, she sighed and laid back out in the cell. It brought back more happy childhood memories, at least.

"I see you're awake." That voice, on the other hand, was not something she'd expected. Sakura sat up very quickly, getting almost dizzy as she did.

Orochimaru's prized student and main assistant.. Anko. She'd been killed by Itachi when Orochimaru was forced out; Sakura had been just as glad not to have to fight her. The woman had been an absolute lunatic.

How the hell had she gotten here? The last she remembered, she'd been in the restroom of some kunoichi's apartment... She stood up, trying to maintain her balance. "What the hell am I doing in here?" She was almost proud of her own restraint in not cursing more at the woman.

"Like I said, you shouldn't expect to not get caught when you break into a jounin's apartment. The Hokage wanted more information, too, since you apparently haven't been home since the night after you nearly killed your jounin instructor." Anko tapped a file she was holding, grinning ferally at Sakura.

Sakura shook her head. "What's that matter? A genin's an adult, after all, right? If I can put my life on the line, I can avoid going home." ..That much better not have changed.

"Don't give me that crap. It matters because it's not in keeping with your profile at all. Nothing since your genin exam has been. So... We're going to talk until you tell me who you really are, and where you're infiltrating from."

Kyeh. Found out to this degree already? But she couldn't have avoided this.. Sleeping on the street one night and they were trying to infiltrate her?

She didn't even notice the window slide open behind her, or the blond man unleashing a technique at her. Which, of course, was the point.

* * *

The Third sighed into his tea, listening to the report. At least it wasn't an infiltration, but it was almost as bad.

Yamanaka Inoichi looked almost as distressed as he felt as he gave the report. But then, Sakura was a friend of his daughter's, the Hokage knew. And she'd been a sweet, polite girl, mostly.

"I've never seen such a completely fractured mindscape, especially in a girl so young. I wasn't really even able to get through to her; her mind managed to eject me eventually. I'd guess, from what I saw before that happened, that it's some sort of multiple personality issues. She's shown some signs of it before, but nothing like this. Something has to have happened to her." Inoichi concluded, frowning. "I'm not certain if it's in my skill to heal or not. But it would be hard to recommend she continue as a ninja like that."

"She managed to severely wound Kakashi in the genin exam. It's not the sort of potential you just throw away, and she might be even more damaged by being kicked out of the program." The Third replied. "Is there anything you can do with her? It might even be useful as a technique, if she can control her personalities, to get deeper into a role."

Inoichi frowned, but nodded. Anko, on the other hand, looked less satisfied. "You're going to just let her off with no more punishment?"

It took some effort not to sigh. "You slammed her into a wall hard enough to put her out for a day, and she's been in a cell for two now. That's plenty.

Anko left, grumbling the whole way. Sarutobi looked away from watching her leave, back over to Inoichi. "Sakura's parents are not ready for something like this. Please, keep an eye out for her. I will be sending her to you for regular appointments."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Inoichi said quietly.

* * *

AN: What, you didn't think someone could behave like that without drawing attention, did you? Fortunately for Sakura, they just think she's insane instead of a traitor or spy. Unfortunately for Sakura, there's a good chance they're at least part right.


	3. Chapter 3

Sakura felt herself being carried as she began to regain consciousness.

"Hmm? Awake now, are you? Hokage-sama says we have to let you go, brat, but I think we'll give you a little lesson about not breaking into jounin's homes regardless."

That was ominous, coming from Anko. And then there was the sound of a window opening, and she felt herself flying through air, rain hitting her back, opening her eyes just in time to see the muddy ground coming up to meet her. Sakura rolled to her feet, taking the fall as best she could, but was still rather covered in the mud.

Which was probably an improvement of sorts, since Anko seemed to have not left her anything else to wear.

"Don't miss your therapy, brat, or I'll hunt you down myself!" the woman cried from a third story window before turning away and heading inside.

Sakura sighed, putting up a henge to avoid complete humiliation, then heading back towards the village. Why the hell had she popped back up in Anko's room, anyway? She'd have been better off anywhere else.

Sakura took off running as the rain continued to fall, heading for home. She could hold a henge for a long time even with her current chakra reserves, but there was no need to take chances.

Arriving at home, she was forced to pick the lock on the door. Not a challenge, of course, but still obnoxious even using chakra to do it. She needed a bath, and then she needed to figure out what the hell was going on.

* * *

Sakura felt rather better as she stepped out of the bathroom, fresh clothes on and almost feeling alive again.

Her mother was waiting outside of the bathroom. She looked rather angry.

"Six days, Sakura. You don't come home for SIX DAYS? And then I get notice from the Hokage's office that you've been arrested!"

Sakura blinked at that, not having expected to be confronted... And not having realized it had been so long. She should have been far more sore if she'd be unconcious for that long, not to mention not having woken up until she was being literally thrown out a window. She opened her mouth to reply, not certain what she was going to say, before being cut off.

"If you want to stay here, you're going to show your father and me the proper respect, not come and go all hours of the night or vanish without a word! You might be an adult to the village, but in this house, you're still a child." And, that said, her mother shoved an envelope at her. It had been opened, though Sakura saw it was addressed to her. And her mother's anger had started to fade, replaced with.. something else. Almost pity.

"Someone with a condition like that shouldn't be a ninja, Sakura. Sweety, you need to stay home.. We can still put you in a civilian school, and get treatment for you."

Sakura blinked and took the envelope, reading the letter inside.

It was from Ino's father, and was relatively simple:

Sakura,

I'm not certain whether you'll remember the conversations that we had; for your convenience, I've written this to you as a reminder.

You seem to have split mindscapes, with multiple dominant personalities. This is occasionally a side effect of being caught in a severe genjutsu, or other trauma, though I'm uncertain what could have caused it in your case. Having talked with Ino, you've apparently shown some of the symptoms for some time. While I am do not generally treat patients any longer, I've agreed to make an exception for you.

While this is a painful disorder, it's something that can be treated, and I would encourage you to not give up on being a ninja because of it. Some patients even eventually use it as a jutsu, switching between two personalities and skill sets depending on the circumstances.

We have standing appointments when you are not out of the village on missions, and you will find a reminder below. The first one is today at four. I suggest you save this letter somewhere you will read it later. Notes to yourself may help, as well.

Yamanaka Inoichi

Ignoring her mother, who had moved down the hall a bit, now looking nervously at Sakura as though she might explode, Sakura headed to her room, still staring at the letter.

"Damn."

She must be sharing her body with her twelve-year-old self. It made a kind of sense, even; she hadn't really thought too much about what would happen to that idiot girl she'd been, once.

She looked at the clock; it wasn't long until her appointment. Sakura left her room, saying simply to her mother "Don't worry. I'll be back soon."

Sakura made her way to the flower shop, feeling rather better than on her earlier walk. This was a problem, but it could be have its pluses - any odd behavior on her part would probably be written off, after all.

She noticed Ino wasn't working as Sakura went into the shop, sitting on a stool near the counter as Ino's father smiled at her. "Oh, Sakura. Good, I was hoping you wouldn't be late. You don't mind if we meet here, I hope? It's a relaxing place..."

Sakura shook her head, nervous about how to lie. She obviously needed to, and it would probably be best to let him lead.

Inoichi sighed, looking at her. "You're awfully quiet. I'm guessing you don't remember our talk from a couple of days ago?"

Sakura shook her head again, looking down, trying to act the part of the twelve year old.

"Well, at least you're more polite than you were. Then I'll ask you something, just so I can know what happened. You claimed earlier to have been trying to learn genjutsu. Do you remember doing that?"

Sakura sat up, looking up at him, trying not to show her surprise. To her regret, she'd never tried going beyond the basics of anything at the academy; she'd been the very best with what they'd had, little good that did. "I.. I don't." she decided, finally, still not knowing much of advanced genjutsu.

"I see. What I believe happened, from looking at your mind and from talking with you now, is that you started experimenting with genjutsu. In the hands of an unwatched novice - especially a girl like yourself, bright enough to figure out things on your own without knowing the possible dangers - genjutsu can do very dangerous things. Cases like this have happened before."

Inoichi leaned forward. "Usually what ends up happening is that either the personalities merge back together quickly, or there's a complete break. Unfortunately, you seem to have already reached that point. Still, there may be things I can teach you to try to control yourself, to bring out your other personality when you need to... Sakura, I won't tell you it will be easy, especially since it will put you behind in your training to need to learn things twice. But you are good enough to do it, and it can be a powerful weapon as a spy. People with techniques like mine can see that there is damage, but it makes it impossible to read or control the contents of your mind."

Sakura tilted her head, then nodded, trying to even offer one of her smiles. She'd done more damage than she'd thought possible to herself in coming back...

After that, Inoichi had asked her to talk about what she was experiencing, and she described the great blocks of time she was missing. He'd had some interesting advice, there. "It seems to be unpredictable when you'll change, but you can do your best to deal with it. Eventually, you can hope to directly communicate with your other self, but that day is far in the future. For now, you should use notes and letters, kept in a place you'll know to look when you recover from a blackout."

That seemed a good suggestion, and she managed to get a pen and paper from him to start. It was the end of their time that Sakura thought to ask.

"Is Ino here? I wanted to see her."

Inoichi shook his head. "Oh, no. She's actually out of the village on an escort mission to Wave; Iruka was bothering me about how rude she'd been to the Hokage to get it. Your team is getting back together tomorrow, isn't it? So you'll be able to at least start some D ranked missions."

Sakura would have taken pride in not showing a reaction to that if her heart hadn't just about stopped; she simply nodded and headed out of the shop, not trusting herself to speak.

Once she was out, she slipped into a public restroom, trying to suppress the panic attack she could feel coming. Asuma wasn't Kakashi, and great as they might have been eventually, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji were no match for Haku at this point. She had to interfere, had to, but she also had to make it to missions for the next few days, and be seen, and not end up in any more trouble.

Saving Ino and the others was the higher priority. Sakura COULD throw herself on the mercy of the Hokage, if she had to, though she suspected with the diagnosis over her head she'd just be in for a stay in a very secure padded cell.

No, there was really only one way this could work. Jamming almost all of her current reserves into one jutsu, Sakura formed a single, solitary kage bunshin, which smirked at her as she slumped in exhaustion. It knew what she wanted, of course, and it carefully judged its own condition. "Three days, at most."

Sakura nodded. "Don't blow it, and don't get dispelled, and I'll do my best to be back before then." she said, knowing that it was an incredibly difficult task with what chakra she'd been able to give without putting herself in the hospital. The faster she could get there and somehow deal with the problem, the better. Traveling at maximum speed, that was plenty of time.. If she could catch up before the first confrontation.

Of course, she had no guarantees she'd make it all the way there without losing control to her younger self. Sakura mentally started making preparations. First, she needed a soldier pill... and then, a note.

* * *

This time, when Sakura suddenly found herself transported from a jail cell to woods that were, so far as she could tell, in the middle of fucking nowhere, she wasn't quite so surprised. The wimpy looking blond guy had explained things well enough for her to get some kind of grasp on events; she was sharing control of herself with some other version of herself, probably the girl who was supposed to have a crush on Itachi's weakling little brother and be a weakling herself.

Still, she decided, it couldn't have been that long.. Oh?

There was writing on the back of her hand, reading 'check your pouch'. Doing so, there was a letter.

"Other Me,

I'm sorry. I just want to get that out of the way now, but it's my fault you've lost part of your mind, and your good reputation.

But we don't really have time for the full story now - I need to get on the road quickly. I am a master mednin, and a jounin, and I've traveled back in time with Naruto's help (and you should treat him nicer!) to try and save the village. Right now, however, Ino and her team are in deadly danger - they're on a mission our team originally had, which is an S rank in disguise. Their escortee is being targeted by a very dangerous duo, high level ninja both, and I'm afraid they'll be killed if I don't interfere.

If you regain control, head for Wave, but do NOT step in until I get control back, and DO NOT LET ANYONE FROM KONOHA SEE YOU. I've left a shadow clone to try and cover for us at home, and if that gets blown we might be in a lot of trouble.

Also, please consider training more seriously. You'll regret it if you don't.

Haruno Sakura

PS: There's a map inside your scroll container."

"Huh." Sakura said to herself, folding the note back up. On the one hand, she really didn't know what to think about this, and she had no idea who the hell Ino was supposed to be. However, Wave did have that fresh seafood she liked so much.. And a good fight was always fun.

Sakura snorted a bit. Her, a mednin? What a waste of her talents. Still, being owed a favor - and thought innocent - by her other self would be useful.

Maybe she could even come up with some interesting goals. Sakura was a general, but she didn't have an army, and she didn't want to be the one ultimately in charge of running the village. No, she needed a Hokage who wanted her skills, who wanted the world in his hands, to enjoy that part of her place in the world, and she'd still had no luck finding out where the hell Itachi was. She was a diplomat, but not at thirteen, at least not without the intimidating reputation she'd had - though actually being listed as crazy would probably help that, instead of just her previously renowned bloodlust.

At least her final role was always the most fun, and even here she suspected that being a killer and tormentor was a job she could find plenty of work in. There wouldn't be ninja at all, otherwise.

Sakura shrugged to herself, taking off quickly for Wave, looking over the map to make certain of just where she was supposed to be going.

Evidently, she'd made it most of the way there; it was only an hour or so before she reached the point where she'd need to take a boat across. There weren't any currently there, however, which made matters considerably more annoying.

Rather than wait for one, she started to walk across the water, moving quickly still but with more caution than she'd shown going through the woods. That paid off, when she saw a light cut through the fog at her and was able to quickly lay flat against the water. Sakura had no idea how well her equipment was waterproofed, but she didn't want to test it.

"Must have been a fish" she heard a boy's voice say. Listening closely, she heard a boat going through the water.

Sakura followed after it carefully, trying to get close enough to confirm that she'd caught up to the blond girl's team. They were almost to the shore by the time that happened, however, and Sakura was concealing herself with the chakra-cheapest jutsu she had for it. The note was right - they needed so much more than this. It would be enough for one or two enemies, if she was good about it, but for the sort of extended mass fights she'd done in the past? Forget it. At least she'd found a supply of soldier pills in the pouch. Even with the price she'd pay for using those, it would be better than running out midfight.

Sakura got confirmation that it was the team she was supposed to be following, spotting the blond girl. She didn't really know the jounin in charge of the team; he seemed like a solid enough ninja, however, and she was careful to recheck her jutsu and avoid emitting any hostile intent.

He hadn't noticed her, but he apparently was able to spot something else before she did, shouting for his students to get down as an obscenely big sword came crashing in.

Sakura loved a good fight, but she wasn't planning on stepping in on this one until she let the jounin wear him - no, them, it was supposed to be a duo - down. An S level mission in this body was a risk she didn't really want to take, and fighting fair had never been her style.

Besides, she could chuck a few genjutsu in and have some fun that way. The jounin would know someone was interfering, but that didn't matter so long as she wasn't seen.

* * *

Asuma had suspected something was going to go horribly wrong with this mission from the beginning. Only the old man's begging had kept them from turning back after the ninja assault.

But to be faced with an S rank criminal he suspected was a touch beyond his own talents? That was unfortunate. Especially since he was on the defensive, charged with protecting the client and his team.

"Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Hidden Mist, isn't it?" he asked, puffing his cigarette.

"Mm? Oh, you're the Hokage's whelp, aren't you?" the man replied, leaning on his sword.

Asuma snorted in irritation. "Come on, I have a 25 million Ryo bounty on my head, and I'm older than you... And better. You should leave."

That didn't get a vocal answer, just a strike from behind, towards Chouji. Asuma moved quickly, intercepting with his chakra blade. Just a water clone, of course; he hated clone users.

"Heart, lungs, throat, legs, bra.. aaAGH!" An intimidating set of whispers, up until a bloodcurdling cry of pain from the man. "KAI! You don't think a little illusion like that will do me in, do you?"

What? Asuma paused. None of his team knew genjutsu, not really.

The pause was a mistake, however. Zabuza was charging in again, aggressively, and going for Ino this time. Asuma made another attack, this one parried by the absurd sword. Which at least gave away that it was really him; a clone sword would have been demolished by the blade.

Asuma tried to hold him there, seeing the shadow slip up towards his opponent, but Zabuza broke it off, jumping away out onto the water. "Huh. One of your runts is a shadow user, then? Guess I should kill that one first. Or last, and see just what he thinks he can do."

Asuma charged, then, not wanting the real one to slip sight and get water clones out.

* * *

Sakura watched the battle carefully. The jounin and the criminal seemed rather evenly matched, and the jounin was using a related technique to her diamond edging - it looked like he was using a lot more chakra for an extended blade, rather than just providing a very sharp edge as she did, but it probably didn't have the flexibility of her abilities... And it was almost certainly an elemental wind technique.

She'd landed a few minor genjutsus on the criminal, but none of her big guns, though the bugs under skin one was a personal favorite. She hadn't actually expected to get him to scream.

She grinned to herself. Getting him to scream had cheered her up, actually. She was torn, really - she could have a good time with a fight with the criminal, and whoever his buddy was, and she hadn't gotten to really stretch herself since being stuck in this body. Not for a while before that, either, thinking about it.

On the other hand, it would be a lot simpler to fulfill her duty to herself and keep Ino safe by just killing the old man they were supposed to be protecting. She wouldn't really have a problem sneaking in and doing the deed, and it would solve the whole issue, unless the criminal wanted to fight to the death for the sake of fighting.

Which wasn't very typical of most ninja, but there were ones who were that way.

Well, it wouldn't be very good of her to fail a mission for Konoha, even if it wasn't hers, she decided. She'd need to build up a reputation there, after all, and she'd be damned if she wouldn't do everything she could to make the place strong. There had to be someone in Konoha worth helping rule the world.

As she mused to herself, the two jounin had been going at it, and the criminal had managed his surprise blow - a rather impressive water dragon. Sakura's own elemental techniques were practically nonexistant; she'd just never had the need for or the hang of them.

Sakura tilted her head. The bearded man looked rather thoroughly unconscious, but not dead, if she were any judge. Which she was, of course.

The criminal started stalking towards the alarmed genin. Stepping in was basically now or never...

Well, what the hell.

Sakura formed a series of seals, singing softly to herself.. And smiling in satisfaction as the genin and their client fell over, asleep from the lullaby genjutsu.

Zabuza was unaffected, as she knew he would likely be, but she wouldn't let that kill her stride. At least he seemed confused, until she dropped down from the tree she had been watching from.

"Another little rodent? And without even a forehead protector... What's it to you, anyway?" He flashed his killing intent towards her, gripping that ridiculous sword.

Sakura grinned at the much larger man, almost savoring the killing intent. "I don't care thaaat much if you do your mission... But I could use a good fight, you know?"

Zabuza laughed. "You're a cute kid, not like those other brats. But you're not ready for someone like me, so I guess you'll have to have a cute funeral, instead..."

"I'm sure it'll be wonderful. You'll say a few words, I hope." Sakura shrugged, trying to look casual in her movements, reaching up to tug at her pink locks of hair. "They'll probably blame this. Say it made me bad at sneaking."

Zabuza struck forward with his sword, suddenly, a fierce lunge at the young girl.

Sakura was cut in half, exploding into a flight of flower petals. Zabuza made a soft noise of satisfaction at the seeming clone.. At least, until the flower petals started to seemingly twist in the wind, surrounding him, cutting shallowly at him. Nothing even in danger of being fatal, but painful, over and over.. Zabuza swept his sword about, jumping away from the petals, but not before they managed to cut him in a dozen noncritical places.

The petals swarmed back together, revealing Sakura once more. She was laughing - giggling, actually, a hand with a bloodied kunai clutched in it held near her mouth. "Even with this body.. You're no match for me." She pronounced, happily. "You and your partner should run; flee and kill your employer, or I'll break your mind until you spend an eternity wishing for the mere torment of hell to escape what I've done to you."

That seemed to throw Zabuza off, at least. She'd known about the 'partner' only from the letter, but it seemed that much information on this was correct; she didn't really believe she could pull off that sort of intimidation with no reputation in this body.

"My employer? What's he to you?"

Sakura laughed again. "Oh, he hired me to kill everyone after you wore each other down. He's probably hiring someone to kill me right now, actually, but I was smart enough to demand part up front, so it works out if you kill him... And it's easier for everyone. I'd rather hear more of your screams, of course, but it can't be all work."

Zabuza growled at that, but said "I will look into if what you've said is true. If it's not, then he will die; today or a week from now makes no real difference." He was gone in a flicker; he was able to actually move faster than Sakura could now, it seemed.

Sakura hmmed. That should be enough to give the Konoha team warning. There was even a pretty good chance that the employer was really trying to have the rogue ninja killed after the mission; one of Zabuza's quality wouldn't come cheap, after all, and it was the sort of thing that happened.

"I'll call this good enough! Wasn't much of a fight, but I couldn't go for a long fight with him, and something short is never sweet enough..." She started to just walk off, before freezing in place.

"...Hmph. Troublesome." She heard from behind her. The genin she'd thought all successfully put to sleep... Had one been faking?

"Forehead-girl?" came another strained cry from behind her.


	4. Chapter 4

Trying to drag out chakra for D rank missions would have been hard enough, Sakura - or rather, her clone - decided. She could have done it, probably, if she could pretend to be weak and slack a bit.

Unfortunately, Kakashi seemed to have no interest in doing missions, D rank or otherwise. Instead, they were training; sparring, constantly, and all it would take was one solid hit and she'd be done.

She'd managed to avoid it so far, going as far as to fake being hit by Sasuke, but it was just delaying the inevitable at this point. She'd used too much chakra to stay intact for long enough to cover for the real Sakura's absence.

And now Kakashi wanted to spar with her. She wasn't that good; even at her best, in a stand up fight the real Sakura likely would not have been able to avoid taking a hit from Kakashi if he was taking things seriously. He wasn't using the Sharingan this time, but she was a clone, no match for the real Sakura, let alone this man.

"Mm? Are you worried I'm going to hurt you for revenge from the other week?" Kakashi said, looking at her. Oh, shit. She was going to be in so much trouble.

She might as well try to fake slacking as the reason. It wasn't a good plan, but she didn't have much else.

"No, Kakashi-sensei. I just wasn't certain how well you'd react when you found out I left practice to get healed after sparring with Sasuke." With that, she quickly drove a kunai into her own chest, vanishing in a puff of smoke. At least she had the satisfaction of watching Kakashi actually look surprised.

* * *

Sakura was held firmly in place, unable to move, when she heard a voice behind her. "Forehead-girl?!?"

Oh, crap. That wasn't good at all. She heard the male voice say firmly, "Ino, check on Asuma-sensei. We need him to help deal with this."

That was the last thing she heard before the world twisted, buckling around her, her head in intense pain.

Images and sounds passed her, most unremembered, none quite right.

One fragment, however, stood out. She was standing, fists clutched around a white medic's skirt, in a ruined building. A blond man in the Hokage's uniform was standing near her, looking grim, and she could REMEMBER intense and confusing feelings, and being too cowardly to speak her mind even then. "Naruto.. I, you... You have to come back with me! At least try!" she cried out, before the world slipped away again into another blur, ending on an image of Kakashi looking shocked as she stabbed herself in the chest.

She felt herself being released from whatever was holding her still, and dropped to the ground on her hands and knees, throwing up painfully. Still mostly unaware of the world, though she could feel a strong grip around her until she passed out.

* * *

Shikamaru sighed as he looked over the battlefield. Their client was still asleep; Shikamaru hadn't yet wanted to wake him, though he'd woken Chouji and Ino as soon as he could.

Shikamaru had managed to counter the sleep inducing jutsu, but had faked falling for it, hoping to have an opening to ambush the new attacker. He hadn't thought it would be someone who had seemed to be at least partly on their side, and he didn't really have words for how little sense it made that it was Sakura.

For some reason, after he had caught her shadow, she'd started to be sick. He'd let her drop, signalling to Chouji to hold on to her - whatever the explanation was, she couldn't be allowed to just flee - before she had actually passed out. Shikamaru thought over the battle.

"Hey, Ino. Did Sakura actually know any genjutsu at the academy?"

Ino looked up from where she was trying to wake Asuma. "What? No, not that I know of, beyond the absolute basics... And she doesn't have any family techniques or anything. Why?"

Shikamaru didn't answer, moving on to wake up the client. "We need to get somewhere safer in case that rogue nin returns. Chouji, can you carry Asuma, and then Ino and I can get Sakura?" The client was getting up now, grumbling about the treatment, but Shikamaru was too busy taking Sakura's weapon pouch from her by then. He still wasn't certain what was going on, but after seeing that, he didn't want to have to deal with the girl with anything sharp.

Shikamaru helped Ino with Sakura, even if he tried to make his teammate take most of the weight, and they reached their client's house as darkness fell. Sakura hadn't woken, but Asuma had, and while he was walking tenderly Chouji at least was carrying Sakura.

"You say she was in your class..?" He asked, after Shikamaru described the threats she had made towards the rogue ninja, and the technique he'd seen her use.

"Forehead is... she used to be a friend of mine." Ino said, butting in. "But she's been acting really, really weird since graduation. I know she was seeing Dad after she got in some sort of trouble, and he doesn't take simple cases, too. Maybe that was from trying to learn genjutsu without an instructor? That seems to be what happened to most of his patients."

Shikamaru snorted. "Isn't that supposed to be confidential?"

Ino shrugged. "I don't know exactly why; I just know she was supposed to see him."

At that moment, Sakura started whimpering in her sleep, struggling in Chouji's grasp. Ino gave a startled look to her supposedly former friend, and Shikamaru was relieved that she at least seemed to be worried.

Asuma sighed. "Well, she might have just bought us some time. There's no way she was telling the whole truth to that rogue ninja.. But you said he seemed most startled when she called him out as having a partner?" Asuma shook his head, not waiting on confirmation. "She'd better have a damn good explanation for this."

* * *

There was another of the strange dreams.

In her dream, this time, Sakura was wearing a modified jounin's uniform, and in the Hokage's tower. She was covered in blood, a smile on her face as she sat on a comfortable bench, her feet curled up. Her leg was injured, a rather brutal cut to her hamstring, but she did her best to ignore the pain. There was a victory to celebrate, even if it wasn't complete - Orochimaru had fled, not been killed.

Two others were standing beside the bench, both with minor wounds in a few places. The other people who had been part of the revolt didn't know it, but the future of the village was being decided by the leaders who mattered.

"I don't know that I like you having the fun parts, Sakura." Morino Ibiki complained, though his smile showed he was in as good a mood as she was. Uchiha Itachi, as always, strived to show nothing.

Sakura laughed, then, more passionately, said "Call it my reward for leading the main assault against Orochimaru's loyalists. Besides, I don't want to rule the village, or where we take over. I want to fight new people, see new places..."

"Third in command means you'll still be in charge if enough happens, Sakura." Itachi said, his amusement clear to his fellow leaders.

"Mm? I'll probably find someone else to trick into taking the silly hat if that happens. I was born to build up Konoha, not to rule it."

Ibiki smiled. "I suppose I'll start my efforts in Sand. We'll see if you can actually expand where I need to be, Sakura."

"Of course. And.. I'm taking him as an officer." Sakura added, her tone of voice clearly willing to accept no argument.

Ibiki raised his eyebrow. "The weapon? You hadn't even seen him in... what, three years until this week?"

"That doesn't matter. He's powerful, and he's too dangerous to keep here, and even after years he's still my teammate.. So I'll take Naruto, and make him be great, and with him and me running the army we'll conquer the world."

Itachi turned those red eyes to her, making a discontented noise. "Friendship and loyalty, from you?"

Sakura grinned. "Don't tell anybody. Besides, you're one to talk, with the weakling and all."

Itachi seemed almost to give a sigh, before turning off. "Go get your leg treated. The three of us should be in good condition for the promotion ceremonies over the next few days."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Sakura said, teasingly, as the older men departed.

She knew this was wrong, knew she'd never even met Itachi, but at the same time it felt so right to be bantering and half flirting with a man her teammate and first crush had destroyed himself for.

* * *

Sakura gasped for breath as she woke up, confused. She was asleep? On a rather uncomfortable mattress, in the dark, no less?

Something was definitely wrong. Her wrists were tied tightly behind her, and she felt the telltale aftertaste of vomit, though she couldn't remember being sick. Had her younger self been captured by enemy ninja or something along those lines?

Well, she wasn't going to wait around to find out. She had enough chakra for her strength, and she did her best to stay quiet as she pulled the rope apart, quickly healing the damage the ropes did to her arms as she stood up off the mattress, unable to see. There was a small amount of light edging a door, but what was behind it she wasn't certain. Still, either she could try and catch whoever had captured her by surprise or she could break out of the back side of the room she was in using her strength.

It was probably not the stunning escape she'd been hoping for when standing up brought her into a large number of articles of clothing, some of which fell from the rack onto her, making a great deal of noise.

The door was thrown open as she started digging herself out of it, and Sakura squinted into the light even as she focused chakra to speed up the adjustment to it.

Oh, shit. "Ino?" And it was; her childhood friend was staring at her, with Asuma standing behind, his arms folded and a severe expression on his face.

"You have a lot of explaining to do." The jounin said, gesturing for her to come out. He opened his arms up, revealing a note held in his hand; the one she'd written to her younger self. Sakura held her hands up, in a gesture of surrender, not wanting them to be too surprised when they discovered she was untied.

Sakura shook her head. "I wouldn't even know where to start. And you wouldn't believe me, anyway."

"I've fought with demons. Try me." Asuma challenged.

Sakura looked down. "If you've read the note, you already know. When he sent me back.. it didn't work quite the way we thought it would. I don't have control of myself all the time; I assume it's my younger self, and she warned you about Zabuza and Haku?"

Asuma stared at her, trying to judge, then hmmed. "And you claim to be a mednin?"

Sakura stared back, determined to convince him now. Going it alone had probably gone out the door the second she had realized her mind was damaged, but she still wanted it kept fairly quiet - she could convince him to only tell the Hokage. "I've surpassed my master in skill. And my master was the best in the history of Konoha before me. But I don't have the chakra base I once did..."

Asuma laughed at that. "You don't lack for boldness, anyway." And, in a quick motion, he had a kunai out and had drawn it along his arm, Sakura forcing back her reaction to the sudden movement, not wanting an actual fight. "If you're a mednin, then heal this. Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji... watch her carefully."

Sakura sighed at the test, but did as he asked, rather rapidly. "That's an idiotic way to test somebody. If I were a mednin and hostile, there are about ten different ways I could kill you while pretending to heal you."

Asuma nodded, satisfied. "True, but I don't think you could do them without my genin noticing."

Sakura shrugged at that, not really wanting to be impolite.

"Now, would you like to tell me why you would risk something as rash as what you've done? I know for a fact that the Hokage has a scroll with the technique that must have been used, but it's never been attempted."

Sakura was slightly relieved to hear that that was known. "You know about that, then? We weren't sure when it was obtained... The reason it was used is because there were only two ninja of Konoha left. The Seventh Hokage decided to send me back." She looked down, unable to hide her pain. "But again, I think something went wrong with it. I told him to try and send both of us, instead of just me.. But I don't think it worked. I ended up sharing my body with my younger self, instead, I believe."

Asuma gave her a steady look. "Your younger self, as you called it, used a chuunin level genjutsu to try to put my entire team to sleep, and what sounded like a very advanced jutsu - one of which I've never heard - to assault Zabuza."

Sakura jerked back at that. "I.. I never really learned much genjutsu." She admitted. "My skills were originally suited to it, but I put myself completely into medical training, and then all the genjutsu experts on our side were dead. There wasn't anyone to teach me, even if I had time to learn. That doesn't make any sense."

Asuma sighed. "I think you've got an assumption wrong. But regardless, I have to inform the Hokage of this. You should have done so already, if you are a loyal ninja of Konoha."

Sakura growled a bit. "Don't you dare question that. I have my mission, and it's to save Konoha from what would otherwise destroy it.. But I will inform the current Hokage of that." She decided, knowing she didn't have much choice. "Any more than that, though, and I'm going to be targeted by Konoha's current enemies before I can get myself back into something like shape."

"You said Konoha's current enemies. Are they who you came back to stop? Or are there future ones more important?"

"Future ones." Sakura admitted, frowning. "But the one I came back to stop isn't a threat right now. He might never be, if I do it right. ...I need to get back to Konoha. The shadow clone I left hasn't been dispelled yet, but I don't know how long it can hold out." Something about that nagged at Sakura's mind, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Asuma nodded at that. "You've been asleep for a day, about. Do you really have enough chakra to make a clone that would last that long?"

Sakura shrugged. "Three days or so, if it's careful." She looked back at Ino, and the other two. "Can you all at least promise me you'll keep it secret? I.. It's for the best, really."

Ino put her hands on Sakura's shoulders, sighing. "Forehead, you really made a mess of yourself... But of course we'll keep quiet. IF you tell me I beat you out for Sasuke-kun, of course."

Sakura looked away, not wanting to think about that. "Um. No, neither of us ended up dating Sasuke." Not wanting to go into it, she said with a smile "But it's not like it matters how things end up then, since I'm changing it. Little things like that might change, too."

"Little things, forehead? What's WRONG with you?" Ino said, sticking her tongue out.

Shaking her head, Sakura sighed, and changed the subject. Or not, since it was a discussion on what was wrong with her. "I've been having dreams." She said, "And from what you said... I think they're bits of the other Sakura's life. If they are... you need to find out more from her, okay? Just ask her. I'm getting a little worried about it. And we should watch out for Zabuza and his partner, Haku, if they didn't fall entirely for what you said I said."

* * *

She was staring into her own face when she 'woke', looking down into the pristine water off a bridge, her bare feet dangling over the water. She shook her head, moving to stand up...

"Hey, Sakura." She was forced back to sitting, resisting the urge to slice the blond girl hugging her and forcing her down at the same time. "I just wanted to thank you for helping me... And to ask you a few questions, since I know you just changed."

Sakura tilted her head, a little confused. "How's that, then?"

"Well, we know about the mednin you, but you're not what she thought. So she asked us to just ask you if you moved without giving the signal."

Sakura laughed. "Subtle. But... alright, I suppose there's no harm in spreading my reputation. Haruno Sakura, the best damn kunoichi Konoha's ever even dreamed of producing, Flower of the Blood Rain. Pleased to meet you."

Ino raised her eyebrows. "You don't have any proof of that, do you? And.. Flower of the Blood Rain?"

"I have enough proof, and they give everyone one of those silly nicknames if you ever get a decent bounty. Besides, unlike the other one, I DIDN'T try to come back. In fact, I was in the middle of trying to finish off a rebellion when I got stuck here, and now I'm mostly just bored. Which is why I'm willing to talk, of course." Sakura pushed herself off the bridge, twisting around and using chakra to float on her back. "I don't have the strength I'm used to... But it'll return. And then I'll see what there is of interest. At least I can have fun surprising people who only see the weakness of the body."

Ino stared at her. "You seem almost completely different.. Except then you go and do or say something that makes you look the same. It's confusing."

"Well, this is a soft world, next to what I'm used to. Almost boring, but... I think I can make sure I get enough excitement; even with the weakling on my team, I can't imagine Naruto not existing to get stronger and prove his worth to everyone. And Kakashi seems like someone I can talk into putting us in danger... I know she sent you to try and talk me into following her lead, probably staying in Konoha so she can prevent whatever it is. Tell her I will, if she'll do the same about letting me move for us to have a place for the future."

The blond frowned down at her friend. "Konoha'll be your place."

Sakura laughed at that. "Of course. Konoha's my home, too. But I'd rather not end up in a padded secure cell for the rest of my life."

The fog was starting to rise around the bridge, and Sakura stood up on the water. "Huh. Kind of late in the day for this, isn't it? I wonder..."

She twisted to defend herself as she felt the killing intent... too late. Sakura avoiding enough to prevent it being instantly lethal, but she took a heavy blow to her shoulder and the side of her face, a deep cut, hitting the water hard and then falling under as Ino gave a scream.

The wound was bad, she knew that much, but she could still move her arm... And she could fake it having been lethal fairly easily, which she did, sending an illusionary clone to float to the surface and play dead, while concealing herself.. and heading for air, before she DID drown or bleed to death.

At least she could form seals, and she had plenty of blood to work with. It would do, and the team would just have to make it a minute or so while she prepared.

By the time she was ready, Ino had somehow gotten far enough away to be standing with the old man, and Asuma was fighting Zabuza. More interestingly there were what looked like freestanding mirrors, and Sakura really wasn't certain what that was about. She had her target, though, and she had a promise to keep.

Threats were much more successful in the future if you got a reputation for following through. And it would be a proper revenge, too... And she could taste his future pain, oh so satisfying.

First, a proper illusion, instead of something so mundane. Sakura gathered some of her blood into her hand, forming a series of seals with the blood held between them. This, combined with the actual strike, would drain most of her pathetic reserves. It was totally worth it, though.

She didn't see her own illusion from this one, but everyone else in the group would - the water surrounding them, turning to blood. And an army, legion upon legion, of her clones emerging, walking to surround Zabuza. They were just illusions, but they would work to allow her to get close enough.

The weakness was that she wouldn't be able to work another genjutsu while it was going AND do the jutsu she wanted. But she just needed to land a strike, and she'd trust in Asuma to keep him distracted.

The drain was worse than she'd anticipated, forcing Sakura to hurry things up, and she slipped around as Zabuza was twisting back to strike at Asuma, smirking as she spotted a fresh wound on the shirtless bastard, knowing then that it wasn't a clone of his own. With that knowledge, she struck, as she'd been taught - quickly, without hesitation, at the best opportunity. The seals she needed already preformed, she struck with one hand to the back of the spine and one to the back of the head.

Either could have been instantly lethal blows, given the right weapon, but she hadn't had intent to kill, and that made it much easier to strike unsensed.

"What did I tell you would happen if I ever saw you again?" Sakura hissed, mostly for Asuma's benefit. Zabuza would be beyond caring, after all. She let the man drop to the ground, grinning to herself as she let her genjutsu drop - down below a tenth of her chakra, but it was done.

Except that the man's partner had apparently noticed the trouble, and now those bizarre mirrors were gone.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" came the scream from the... girl? No, that was probably a boy, Sakura decided. He looked pissed, and Sakura could see now with the mirrors gone and the mist completely cleared that the fat kid and the other boy were down.

Maybe she shouldn't have been quite so flagrent with her chakra, she mused. Oh, well.

NOW she should be able to carry out a proper threat. "I assume he found out I'd lied to him about being hired? Pity." She reached her hand to her mouth, licking her own blood off of it. "But I did make a promise, and I've kept it - his mind will constantly tear itself to shreds. Do you want the same to happen to you?"

It didn't work, however, even as Asuma seemed to prepare jutsu of his own. "I'll kill you for daring to do that to Zabuza-sama!"

Sakura tilted her head. Oh, my - love? Always a fun weapon, but better to make it a shield for now. "There are probably five or six mednin in the world who could fix it, if you cared to find one of them. Maybe a few other genjutsu experts, as well. But know this - if you fight me, you'll be in the same situation, and I'll make absolutely certain you both live long lives in the worst pain imaginable. Not imaginable by you - by ME. Take him and leave before I change my mind about letting you, idiot." She kicked out at Zabuza one time, kicking him towards Haku, before turning away.

It was practically daring him to attack, but she thought... And there was the chakra flicker, taking the pair away. She sighed in relief, and Asuma offered her a glance before they started to head for the downed pair.

"Bluff is the best way to win a fight, then?" He asked, recognizing her relief for what it was.

Sakura considered for a minute. "No, but it might be... sixth best?" She knelt down next to the fat kid. "Huh. Looks like the lovebird is a fan of torturing people before finishing them, but he didn't get around to the last part. They're still alive."

"You not going to heal them?" Asuma asked.

"Do I look like a girl who would waste god-given talent on becoming a mednin? ...I guess I do, actually, but I'm not. They'll just have to wait." Sakura rubbed her own wounded arm, which was starting to feel numb. "Of course, I've got no idea how long it'll be, or what seems to trigger it."

"Is there something that happened each time before you lost control?" Asuma asked, interested now.

Sakura considered that, knowing it'd be useful to know - much as she disliked the idea of being a mednin, having the service of one at her beck and call and getting to skip all the painful healing parts sounded wonderful. She didn't really want these people to know a weakness, but so long as they thought they had control over her, they might go easier on the padded room parts. "Either I was asleep, I was knocked out.. Or... Hey, do you have a mirror?" she asked, remembering her first attempt at getting a shower, and waking to looking at her reflection in the water.

* * *

Ino had a mirror, of course, as Sakura asked for it. "Hey, forehead, what do you need it for, anyway?"

And, for the first time, Ino truly realized that this Sakura, unlike the one who she'd been a guardian to for her childhood, or the confused mednin, did not consider her her friend. She was able to see the killing intent in her friend's eyes at the nickname, backed by a whispered threat.

"The first time I ever killed was a girl who insisted on making fun of that. Maybe you want to think about stopping."

Ino was stunned into silence, gaping at the pink-haired girl, who then stared straight into the mirror, meeting her own eyes steadily, until she seemed to startle after a minute or so, looking around, clearly disoriented.

"Ino? Why are you looking at me like that..?" Sakura asked, sounding worried, even as she moved to look at her own arm and felt at the wound on her head, already starting to work on healing it.

"It worked! Come here, Sakura." Asuma said, satisfied, "I've got a couple of patients for you."

"What? What the hell happened?" Sakura demanded, rushing over, oblivious suddenly to the fear on her friend's face.

* * *

AN:

Learning a bit more about what she's done to herself, and who unkind Sakura was. On the upside, a bit of control, and cooperation could go a long way.. If a goal could be agreed on.

Next time: Team Seven gets together, and Sakura has some explaining to do.


	5. Chapter 5

Sakura sat down on the couch, sighing happily. It had been a day since the bridge, and both Chouji and Shikamaru were stabilized and would make full recoveries soon, though both were drained now and probably would sleep most of the next day or two until they could return to duty.

Still, things seemed to be over - Asuma had said that Zabuza was disabled, and she was looking forward to getting back to Konoha - she'd have the help of the Hokage coming up with a cover for her team, and everything would work out.

Ino, on the other hand, might be a problem. The blond girl had seemed almost scared of her since the bridge, and Sakura wasn't really in the mood for it, though it was unfair to expect Ino to be used to things this quickly.

Sakura, more mentally drained than physically tired, closed her eyes and laid her head back on the couch. A few minute's rest would be nice. Just resting her eyes.

* * *

"Sakura?" came the voice as she woke up. Quickly taking a glance around, she realized she was being called from the hallway, and she might be able to scout things out a bit better if she could fake being her weaker half a bit. While her other self most likely had fallen asleep, the clock on the wall showed that it was still early enough that she reasonably probably wouldn't have.. And Ino might not think about it.

"Yes, Ino?" She replied, trying to force fatigue into her voice. Judging by the complete absence of so much as a twinge from her injuries from the bridge, the mednin side was good at what she did, at least - she'd expected to still be hurting when she woke up next.

"I wanted to check on you.. And apologize for hiding from you, after you probably wanted to know what I learned. But Sakura... your other self is scary. She claimed to be an expert killer, and she even threatened me if I kept calling her forehead..."

Sakura nodded, putting a pained tone in her voice. "I'd worried about that... Do you think there's anything we need to do about it? She at least fought to help you, right?"

Ino wouldn't meet her eyes. "She said she'd help out if she was bored, and Zabuza attacked her first. I actually thought you were dead for a minute..."

Sakura smiled gently. "Don't worry; I'm tough to kill, and I'm sure that goes for her too. And no ninja would get into a life or death fight just because they were bored."

"Well.. sensei thinks there might be a way to seal her away from you, anyway. He said the Hokage has some techniques that could be adapted for it. You should at least think about it, okay? I think she might really be dangerous." Ino said, offering Sakura a quick hug, which she returned after stiffening for a moment.

"I'll think about it. I'm a little worried about what might go wrong with it, though; my mind has been in better shape." Sakura said, trying to hide her concern at THAT news. She had known they'd spread the secret at least to a few people, but she hadn't thought they'd have a way to lock her out of control.

That couldn't be allowed to happen.

After a minute small-talking with Ino, Sakura yawned and stretched out on the couch. "Ooh, I think I'm going to take a nap, okay?"

Ino smiled. "Alright, forehead-girl."

Sakura forced herself to roll her eyes, rather than punch the girl in the face or something else more satisfying, before laying out on the couch and shutting her eyes, pretending to sleep and waiting.

She waited three hours, time enough for it to be the middle of the night, and she could sense chakra well enough to know that none of the other ninja had moved in at least an hour. Her weapon pouch was on the table in front of her; it must have been returned at some point.

Asuma was the priority - he was in a room by himself, and he was also the only one who would be dangerous to her in a fight. But they'd established some degree of trust; that should hopefully make this easier. Sakura sat up, keeping a tight grip on herself. She needed to avoid even a hint of killing intent or else a jounin like Asuma might well sense it; she was just going to the restroom, or getting a snack. Nothing more.

She moved absolutely silently towards his room, working up a genjutsu to suppress noise in the area around her, managing the mental doublethink necessary to claim to herself that it was just to avoid disturbing anyone while she got her drink.

Moving in, this was the part that was dangerous. He was asleep, and she was pretty damn certain it was him and not a clone, but she needed to take him down without a fight or else someone might escape the house, and if they made it to the village then this would really turn into a slaughter.

Not that that wouldn't have its fun side.

Sakura smiled to herself, thinking about fond memories as she pulled a kunai absently from her pouch, chakra running over it as she stabbed it at Asuma's heart, then concentrated more to twist around and down to cut through the spine, the chakra providing a razor's edge for the difficult second part.

It was over quickly enough, and there was less to worry about - she wasn't in serious danger from anyone else here, after all, especially if she could get them in their sleep. And her silencing genjutsu had held up through the man's strained scream, judging by the complete lack of a change in chakra from the three fresh genin.

However, those three were in a room together, and she was probably going to have to deal with at least two of them awake. Best to clear the rest of the house out first; the old man, the woman, and the kid. They were also in a room together, probably due to Asuma and his team taking their bedrooms, but there would be no fight involved.

The old man and the woman were easy, of course. Sakura didn't take pleasure in their deaths, but they were no more difficult than buying groceries or checking the mail.

She turned to the kid, however, and hesitated. Sakura didn't like killing children, though she had before, and this one was bothering her more than usual. She clutched her kunai, trying to shut it out...

"Damn it." She said with a sigh, breaking the silencing genjutsu, sliding the kunai back into her pouch. She couldn't bring herself to do it this time; she'd have to just scramble his mind and hope for the best. She couldn't erase memories, but she could add fake ones, and enough of those would render his story useless - she'd use other genin and ninja she knew, and that would be enough.

It'd probably work on the genin, for that matter, though it would be a little less reliable. Still, she could probably plant a trap or two if someone started digging...

It wasn't perfect, but she might be able to take advantage of it - it'd probably piss off her mednin side less, for one, and that might make it easier to keep her under control. Besides, Asuma's death was non-optional if she wanted things under wraps, but she didn't want to weaken Konoha more than she had to.

She'd need her army someday, after all.

The kid had woken up when she'd sworn, and he was starting to stir. Since he had some of the old man's blood on him, he was going to undoubtedly start screaming soon. Sakura formed a series of seals, slamming her hand into his forehead.

He was out like a light when she was done, of course, giving him all the alternate scenarios for this slaughter she could think of - Naruto, Itachi, one of the Hyuuga or Inuzuka, a horde of thieves, even the weakling Sasuke. The kid'd be the easy one, in more ways than one - she had no intention of letting the corpses be found, not when they'd give away some elements of her own ability and narrow down the possibilities. Which meant she'd have to carry the live ones out.

She briefly contemplated killing the fat one after all, before dismissing it. The other two would probably be forced out if they came back both missing a team member, their sensei, and mentally compromised, while a complete team would be assigned a new jounin. If they weren't going to be Konoha ninja, they might as well be dead.

Sneaking into the genin's room, she knew better than to try simple genjutsu to keep them asleep this time. Luckily, the two who were more dangerous were already injured; they were sharing the bed, while Ino was on a cot. She'd need them down before working on them; a ninja would be able to resist if she didn't have them helpless.

Not really having a backup plan for ensuring sleep beyond the genjutsu, Sakura flipped back out the kunai, aiming a bash using the metal ring at Shikamaru's head, following it up with several repeat blows to insure he stayed down before moving to do the same to Chouji.

Of course, before she was done there, Ino was awake, and screaming. Shrilly. Sakura tilted her head, looking askew at the blond. "Oh, Ino-chan, what's the matter?" Probably the blood covering her from the adults, Sakura decided, after mulling it over for a moment.

"Sa.. Sakura, what..?" Ino said, starting to speak.

"Sssh. Don't worry, it's just a nightmare. It'll be fine when you wake up." Sakura said, hopping off her position perched on the edge of the bed, the kunai still held in hand. "Well, mostly." She admitted, giggling at the thought of the girl finding out about her sensei and her mission both being blown. Shame she wouldn't be there to see it. "Just remember - or, better yet, you could forget - that you owe me your life three times after tonight."

With that, she drove the ring of the kunai at the temple of Ino's head, trusting in her overwhelming presence and the shock to hold the girl still long enough. It did.

Sakura was damn near dead on her feet by the time she applied the modifications to the three genin, especially with the traps she'd left in them. In addition to the ones for the kid, she'd had to do fake versions of the other fights, and of the whole few days, plus a few about dramatically escaping the fires Sakura was about to start to burn any evidence she might have left.

It was fortunate that she was able to find a few normal soldier pills in Chouji's supplies. Eating one of those, she started dragging the genin outside one by one, swearing at Chouji for being fat the whole time. She should have developed a damned strength jutsu or something for times like these.

* * *

Sakura was floating in a lake when she woke up, a mirror in her hand. She slipped under the water for a few moments, before swimming back to the surface, having thrashed around in surprise.

"Hello, there. Careful, now, you don't want to drown or something silly like that" came a voice from above her, sounding amused.

Sakura stared in surprise at herself, standing on top of the water, though naturally it didn't take her long to recognize what it was. "A shadow clone, huh? Why not just send a message through Asuma or Ino?"

The shadow clone smiled, saying "They could hardly pass it along so effectively. And you're on the way back to Konoha, anyway. Besides, I thought we should talk about the future."

Sakura nodded, swimming towards the edge of the lake. "Your clothes and things are over that way." the clone mentioned, following along. "And I thought I should tell you... Your friends were going to get us put away. But I dealt with it, so don't worry."

Sakura stopped cold at that, turning back to stare. "Dealt with it?"

"I scrambled their memories, and then left before they'd wake up." The clone admitted, with a shrug. "But they didn't really leave me too much choice, after what I found out."

"You scrambled their memories? But what if some other ninja attacks, or something else happens?" Sakura asked, worried.

The clone closed her eyes, looking almost regretful. "You're here because otherwise this place's village would have been wiped out, right? Without you changing what's to come? They were going to have you locked away, where you couldn't change anything, couldn't save anyone. Better to save everyone except for them, right? Besides, I saved their lives; they should have had SOME gratitude for that, instead of figuring out how to dispose of us right away. They'll probably be fine, anyway, just with no idea - or rather, too many ideas - about what happened to them in the last week. Well, maybe month."

Sakura felt sick, cold from head to toe. "You know what that kind of jutsu can do to someone? Besides, we were going to tell the Hokage, and it was going to work out..."

"Of course I do; there aren't but a few people who can do that to begin with. But it's done, now, and there's nothing you can do about it. You should be thinking about what happens next, instead of thinking foolish thoughts like turning yourself in or anything like that. You and I still want the same thing, you know. A strong Konoha, safe for the future, and we're the best way to bring that about - you have no idea how strong you can be, if you work at the right things. Just don't make the mistake of letting anyone find out what's really happened, or it'll never happen." The shadow clone smiled, now, handing over an unfamiliar bundle of clothing. "Anyway, you probably shouldn't try to dispel me. Just call it a word to the wise. I'd start coming up with a good cover story for when you get back to Konoha, though."

* * *

Sakura made good time to Konoha, in spite of her distraction. She'd lost many friends over the years, and had even felt responsible for their deaths before - as a medic, she'd been forced to make very hard decisions in the past. But the idea of having left friends helpless made her feel like shit, and just the fact that they'd be either aware by now or dead didn't make it better, even though Sakura knew she had to be back in Konoha soon. The difficulty of coming up with a plausable story was already bad enough.

The shadow clone was following along, she knew, able to sense it somewhere behind her, but she didn't want to talk to it. Her other half was a monster, she was coming to think, even if she might be right - without Sakura freely able to make changes, the whole village would be slaughtered. Again.

It was almost tempting to pass along a note that Sasuke would be responsible. She wouldn't have to do it herself, and it would be taken care of...

No. No, that couldn't happen, yet. He was her teammate, by god, and if he had to be killed, she would do it. She'd make certain the future was secure, get Naruto fully prepared to run the village, and then... she'd make certain the monster in her head was contained, somehow, even if it did mean spending the rest of her life securely locked away.

She was suspicious the clone she'd left in Konoha had gone away, and that was what had inspired her double to use the skill for her message - and inspired her to leave that warning, which she was taking at face value.

So... there was really only one cover she could think of. How long had she been gone? More importantly, how long had the shadow clone been gone? She could think of one solid cover that would work regardless, assuming patrols eventually found her, which close to Konoha they would.

She was near some of the training grounds without actually being in any. Time to set things up. She destroyed a few trees with her fists, using an incomplete version of her strength, improving it each time. Finally focusing her chakra to her neck and head, Sakura used her great strength in a headbutt, bashing a tree apart, giving herself yet another concusion at the same time, shards of wood driving themselves into her for a dozen other little injuries. Training was a dangerous activity, and she'd make certain she got a reputation for idiotic training injuries, between this and her mind being supposedly wounded by her own genjutsu practice, but she deserved far worse than this - whatever she'd done to her friends, it was undoubtedly worse to experience than a little pain.

* * *

"We found her out in the woods, with a bunch of trees shattered around her. It looks like she did something to blow one up too close to her and hit her head," the chuunin reported, speaking with Kakashi.

"Mm. She vanished during training the other day... I didn't think it would be for something like that, though." Kakashi considered whether he really cared that his most confusing student had injured herself, and reluctantly came to the conclusion that he did. Mostly because it made so little sense, unless she were trying to learn something in secret. Which would only make sense if she were an idiot, after what had evidently happened when she was learning genjutsu.

Kakashi peeked into the hospital room. There were bandages wrapped along her face, but that unnatural hair still stuck out. "Did the mednins say how long until she can return to duty?"

"Later today, if you don't mind her being a little sore. You should keep a closer eye on her; she could have died out there if my patrol hadn't come along."

Kakashi gave the chuunin an icy glare for that, not bothering to answer. His students, his business.

"Fine, fine," the younger man said, walking off and rolling his eyes.

Kakashi moved to the bed, scooping the kunoichi off of it and heading towards where his team was supposed to meet two hours ago. They were going to do a mission today if he had to torture them until it happened.

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto had expected becoming a ninja to mean doing lots of great missions protecting people and, in turn, being recognized by those people as someone worthy of their time and respect.

It hadn't quite gone that way so far.

First, they'd had a stupid second genin test, where he'd been... embarrassed by Kakashi-sensei. And then his sweet Sakura-chan had cut their instructor's throat open, causing them to both pass - even Sasuke, who hadn't done ANYTHING! - and spend a couple of hours answering questions for the old man, who'd seemed almost impressed about it.

That wasn't all that bad, really; Kakashi-sensei was going to be okay, after all. And he had told them to go all out.

However, it'd set them back a whole week where Naruto hadn't had much of anything to do, and when they got their instructor back, he wouldn't even teach them anything or take them on missions. He'd had them spar and nothing else, and Sakura had snuck out - after stealing his super technique to do it! - during the middle of that. When Kakashi had found out, he'd dismissed them, and that had been two whole days ago.

At least they were having a team meeting today; he was hoping they'd finally get a mission, assuming Kakashi ever bothered to show up. Being stuck waiting with Sasuke was not a great way to pass time; the bastard never TALKED.

Kakashi appeared on the bridge, over two hours after when they were supposed to meet. "You're la.. Sakura-chan?!?" Naruto said, strained, as he spotted the distinctive pink hair of the girl who was being held in Kakashi's arms. She was in a hospital gown that looked much too big for her, and her head was bandaged up, her long hair sticking out from the bottom of the bandages. Kakashi sat her down, leaning her against the railing of the bridge they were on.

Even Sasuke was looking a little disturbed at this. "Did you kidnap her from the hospital or something?"

"No, no. We have a mission, and all team members need to be along for missions!" Kakashi said, cheerfully. "It's even technically a C-rank, since we're leaving the village for two or three days. Besides, I'm sure she'll wake up before we get there."

Naruto eyed their sensei, still not exactly impressed, but definitely wanting the mission. Mission versus wanting to accuse him of mistreating Sakura fought... "A mission? Great!" Sakura would be okay, after all! And whatever a C rank was, it sounded exciting, leaving the village and all.

"Now, the first part of the mission is... You two have to carry Sakura until she wakes up."

"WHAT?" Naruto yelled.

Sasuke pressed his palm against his forehead, looking annoyed before he took hold of Sakura under one arm. "Come on, dead last. I think he's serious."

* * *

The dream of her Other Self was almost happy, this time. She was eating lunch with a late teenaged Naruto - well, more accurately, they were both eating and throwing small fruit at each other, laughing and enjoying themselves.

A man she half recognized approached their table, a large dog walking along behind. "Ah, Sakura, Naruto!"

"Oh, hey, Kiba." Naruto said, grinning as he pelted her with a grape. "What's going on?"

"Just thought I'd show off - we captured a few of the most recent Stone bingo books; I'm into the top ten bounties for Konoha." He waved a copy of the book at the pair, his dog barking happily as Naruto played with it.

"Oh, hey, let me see!" Sakura said, grabbing the book from Kiba's hands, "I wonder if I made it up to second yet." There was no question of who was first, of course. "Besides, I always love seeing what they got wrong."

Naruto peered over her shoulder as she flipped through it - the Konoha section dominated the book, of course, and ran from classified most dangerous (and highest bounty) to the least with enough information for publishing.

"Itachi first, of course. Second... Aw, what the hell?" Flipping past the Hokage's page, she saw Naruto. "Come on, how's the second in command rate more dangerous than the leader of an army, anyway? I bet this is because I let you take credit for what happened to the Mizukage." Sakura said, as Naruto did a bit of celebration. He always loved moving up in the rankings, but then, so did she.

Sakura shrugged, saying "There's no accounting for bad judgment, I guess!" She glanced over Naruto's profile - mostly accurate, surprisingly - before flipping the page. "Well, at least I'm third." She decided, hmming and then laughing. "Oh, good, they still haven't figured everything out, either. Just descriptions of chakra edging and some of the genjutsu; none of the really good ones. Though they do have a warning about my impersonation skills."

Naruto looked amused. "They heard about the Wind Daimyo, I guess?"

"Yeah, there's a brief outline of the mission here. Guess I should have killed the witnesses, but it was supposed to mostly be a conquered country at that point. And it would have been half their court." Sakura shrugged again, handing the book back to Kiba, satisfied to have at least beaten Ibiki.

"You kill one person while disguised as his five year old kid and everyone holds it against you forever, huh?" Kiba said, laughing.

"Oh, shut up, Kiba." Sakura said, hitting him on the side of the face with an orange.

* * *

Sakura woke slowly, and felt awkward as she did. It was almost as though she were hanging...

"WHAT THE HELL?" She screamed as her eyes opened, and she spotted some of the situation she was in. She was being carried through a forest, she could see right off, by Naruto and Sasuke. And she was in a hospital gown. She didn't even have shoes on.

Naruto slipped as she screamed, and that left them off balance - she slipped from Sasuke's grip, falling on top of the blond, rolling off to the side and staring up at the trees.

"Oh, good, she's awake." Kakashi's voice came back to them, from a bit of a distance away. Sakura sat up, squashing an urge to heal her head as she felt a dizzy streak. It'd be far too obvious in front of Kakashi, and her double's warning still presumably applied.

"What the hell am I doing out here?" Sakura asked, irritably, restraining herself from giving Naruto a 'love tap' as he fussed over her.

"We have a mission!" Kakashi said, smiling. "We're going to be escorting back a caravan of supplies to Konoha."

Sakura looked a little surprised at that. "A C-rank? That still doesn't explain why I'm out here like this."

"It's a little late to be worried about your health, isn't it? Two major training accidents in your first two weeks as a genin..." Sakura flushed and looked away from Kakashi; it took her glance towards Naruto.

Her heart caught in her throat as she got her first proper look at her best friend since coming back. It wasn't him... But she'd forgotten how excitable he'd been once. And annoying, not that she had room to talk.

"Did you at least bring some supplies for me?" Sakura grumbled, looking away from Naruto, trying to hide her eyes from him. She wanted to cry, or hug him, or dance.. it was confusing, still, and better not to think about.

"You can get some when we get there. I'm sure Naruto or Sasuke can loan you a few weapons."

She didn't really use weapons anymore, and none of them would have the medical supplies she'd really like to have. Kakashi obviously thought this mission was going to be simple and was using it to punish her for.. well, she could think of a lot of possible reasons.

Still, going through the forest with no shoes on? That was just cruel.

Sakura dusted herself off and stood up, still shooting a glare at Kakashi, even as she started walking. She used chakra to coat her feet, preventing anything sharp from sticking in, as she walked.

"Hey, hey, are you sure you're okay, Sakura-chan?"

She bit back an angry response, forcing herself to smile at Naruto. He'd learn some manners eventually, and she really shouldn't beat precious brain cells out of him. "Of course I am. Something small like this won't bother me!"

Naruto smiled brightly back at her, though she could see that he was confused behind it.

She went back to glaring at Kakashi, though her mind was spinning now. He wouldn't normally have done something this irresponsible.

Well, he would have, but more through neglect than through actively forcing her on a mission with no food, weapon, or proper clothing, she thought, as she put up a henge to at least LOOK respectable if they ran across anyone. This must be some sort of test; she just couldn't tell what he was driving at.

She'd have to somehow get word to her other self what was happening; they needed a way to communicate that wouldn't be suspicious. Maybe a planned cipher of some kind? It would be worth thinking about, though it needed to be something that could be explained...

Trying to keep this a secret was really going to be a pain in the ass, she decided.

* * *

The caravan was waiting for them in a civilian village; Sakura had been there a few times before. She at least knew of a shop that carried some ninja fashions, and she barely waited for Kakashi's permission to go shopping, knowing that this close to Konoha she'd be able to get a bill sent to the village on her behalf, and that as it was late afternoon she wouldn't have time after they found their inn.

She'd have to beg a kunai off of Naruto, just to keep appearances up, even if she had no intention of using it. Sakura bought a traveling kit - not up to her standards, but at least it was something - and a couple of simple, comfortable outfits. At least those were better than the dress she'd worn as a fresh Genin; she'd have to try and contrive a reason to switch that up more permanently.

She also bought a pen and a notepad, writing on the first page instructions for a simple cipher that used a keyword, then writing that the keyword was the Hokage's name.

She was coming to be more and more certain that her dreams were actually glimpses of her other self, which terrified her to some degree. She'd need to try and remember details, to capture information that could be useful...

Such as the name of her other self's Hokage, Itachi, around which the cipher was based.

Doing it was a bit of a pain, of course, so she had to be sparing with her words. Still, she managed to both work in a description of the current situation and a request that they try to keep each other updated within the notebook.

The notebook itself she placed in the front pocket of her new pants, knowing that it was going to be annoying but figuring that was the best way to make certain she would actually look at it if something happened.

She moved on from there, finally getting some rations. She really wanted a good pair of gloves, but nothing was quite up to her standards that she saw as she went from place to place, knowing that her time was running short to get back to her team - the supplies were supposed to leave in the morning, but Kakashi wanted to check that everything was in order.

Somehow, she was only mildly surprised when she was attacked coming out of the last store. She felt the man coming up behind her, of course; there would be... two or three more, she decided, outside.

She held off on breaking away; might as well see what they wanted. She feigned total shock when she was grabbed and pulled into the alley beside the store, a kunai held to her throat.

"Hello, missy." A man hissed into her ear. "Just hold still and you might get to live through this."

"Good work, Nanashi." A voice came from outside the alley. An older man with graying hair stepped into the alley.

Sakura tried her best to play the part of a genin caught on her first real mission; terrified and weak. "Wh.. what do you want with me?"

"Don't worry about that, little girl. You just stay quiet and friendly and we'll trade you back to Konoha soon enough, if you're lucky."

"Little girl, huh..?" Sakura said, dropping the act, a surge of anger rising with lethal intent behind it. She felt the man behind her stiffen and start to slice for her throat; her chakra was there, hardening her skin and preventing the kunai from damaging it even as she moved suddenly, driving an elbow backwards at the man holding her. One with her enhanced strength behind it.

She didn't have the leverage to be certain of a kill or even disabling him from that, so she followed up with a spinning kick. The man was driven into and through the wall of the store; Sakura only followed him with her eyes long enough to be certain that he hadn't gotten a replacement or clone off.

That was too long, however. When she turned back, the man who had been at the front of the alley was gone from sight, and since he could very well be a stealth specialist getting ready to ambush, Sakura wasted no time in fleeing.

"Why the hell can't we get a damn normal C rank mission?" Sakura asked, grumbling to herself as she looked for the inn she was supposed to meet her team at. She'd have a hard time explaining the dead man (and for that matter the wrecked store, whose manager was now hiding under his register), she knew, but she couldn't really bring herself to regret it. In spite of what they'd said, if that had actually been her as a genin there was a good chance she'd have ended up in a very unhappy place.

Well, sooner than she actually had, thinking about it.

Sakura reached the hotel just in time to nearly run smack into Kakashi, who was looking almost worried for some reason. "Kakashi-sensei!" she said, glad to see him. "Sakura. Get inside; our mission is going to be more.. involved than I had planned on."

"I know, some men attacked me. What's going on, sensei?" She didn't want to admit that she'd killed; while it did bother her a bit, it was mostly being bothered by NOT being bothered enough. If anything, she'd enjoyed cutting loose, and while that was not a good thing even after the number she'd had to kill (or, always worse, been unable to heal), it would be enough to get a genin either committed or assigned to ANBU. She didn't want either.

Kakashi herded her into the hotel, explaining on the way. "An agent of Konoha was exposed in Cloud; he was using the merchant group we're bringing in to get back into the country. However, he believes that they are pursuing him and may have his location."

"I didn't see a forehead protector on the men who attacked me."

"It's possible those were just criminals; Cloud ninja sent in would be at least chuunin level, after all." Sakura stared blankly at him - he'd say that even after she'd apparently put him in the hospital? He continued, "But I suppose if you got the drop on them with whatever you did to me..."

"One of them is pretty badly hurt, I think. I hurried back here rather than stay out and check - the other one vanished, and I wasn't sure if he was really gone or not." Sakura admitted, not very happily. "What are we going to do?"

"The caravan still leaves tomorrow morning, but our priority is now the agent." Kakashi said as they entered a room. In it were Naruto and Sasuke, along with a man. Sakura looked him over, but didn't recognize him - brown short hair, about twenty or so. He was injured, too, that much was clear, but even she couldn't tell how badly from just a glance.

"We can't just leave merchants unguarded, can we? It would be abandoning them." Sakura said, feeling a little ill at the thought.

"We're going to try to go with them, but if we have to, we'll make a break and leave. Hopefully, we can distract the enemy into pursuing a false trail if it comes to that. Now, I need to know what you saw with the ones who attacked you."

"There were two of them; I got a good kick in on one and ran." Sakura said, not wanting to give away too much information. "They may have just been criminals, as you said, but one of them had a kunai and was holding it correctly, at least."

"You were attacked, Sakura-chan?" Naruto looked worried, now, as did the man beside of him. Sakura tried to give him a reassuring look.

"We're going to secure this area until morning, then we'll head out for Konoha with the merchants." Kakashi decided, ignoring both Sakura and Naruto. "So.. Stay here. Don't let anyone else in. I'll come get two of you when it's your turn for watch." The white-haired man vanished, to Sakura's slight amusement. He really was kind of a lousy teacher, as much as she liked him.

Sakura sat on one of the beds, looking over at Naruto and Sasuke. "I'm fine, don't worry." She reassured them. Well, mostly Naruto, who was giving her an odd look, though even Sasuke was watching her more closely than she could remember him ever doing when they'd been a team. This was going to be awkward.

"What's with you?" Sasuke asked, suddenly. "You don't even look at me, and you hurt Kakashi, and now you're not even bothered by being attacked?"

"You bastard, of course she's not! She's a strong ninja!" Naruto said, leaping to her defense.

Sakura looked over, ignoring the man they were guarding for the moment. "Ninja hide who they are, Sasuke." she said, simply, going for some sort of explanation of why her personality might shift. "And it's fun to try out new faces for the world..." Sticking her tongue out at him, she laid down on one of the beds. She probably couldn't do anything to throw them off more than that, after all.

She could feel their eyes on her as she stared up at the ceiling, but she didn't dare actually sleep; she might not be the one to wake back up, after all. "Anyway, we should set up some traps, just in case they come after him here. Be ready for an attack, you know?" She bit her lip as Sasuke and Naruto started arguing over it, just trying to relax.

Considering how much she'd missed team 7 once it had fallen apart, having it back was awfully stressful.

* * *

AN: Sorry it was late; I've been blocked on it, and I'm not really a fan of how this chapter turned out, but at this point it's best to get past the block and get the story flowing once more.

For those upset about Asuma's death... Well, I'm sympathetic. The original outline called for all of team 10 to die there; I couldn't bring myself to do it so early in the story, and revised accourdingly. Actions, of course, have consequences, as most of us learned in Kindergarten. Sakura, however, skipped Kindergarten in favor of learning about killing people, so she might get a remedial class on it.


	7. Chapter 7

Sakura tugged at her medic-nin's skirt, looking down. It was covered in blood, her first sensei's blood, but she couldn't look up and meet her teammate's eyes. "Naruto.. I couldn't help him. I'm sorry."

Naruto rushed forward, catching her as she started to drop, her chakra bone dry, but she could feel him shaking with sobs as she clung desperately to him...

* * *

...And she continued being shaken, waking Sakura from her dream. She gave a weary glare at the one waking her - the 'sensei' in her dream. Damn the other her, anyway; couldn't she have a nice dream about something pleasent from her own damn life instead? There'd been the time in Sand... Or maybe that spar with Naruto...

"It's not very cute to give off killing intent when you're woken for your turn at watch." Kakashi said, seeming to smile behind his mask. She resisted the urge to try to cut it off.

"Right, right.." Watch, huh? Where the hell were they? Sakura sat up, looking around and seeing that it seemed to be a hotel room, of all places. "Give me a few minutes to use the restroom, sensei?" she asked sweetly, seeing that room to the side. After getting a nod, she went.

Sakura very carefully avoided looking at the mirror, not caring to risk losing control so quickly. Instead, she went through her pouches - for some reason, she'd fallen asleep fully dressed, but the clothes and equipment might as well scream 'new and not particularly good'. She needed to get familiar with what she had available - which, weapons-wise, apparently amounted to two kunai. Wonderful.

However, she did find what she was most hopeful for - a cipher and a pair of messages. It was a pretty simple one, substitution using the name Uchiha Itachi as the key, and she quickly translated it in her mind.

The first message was a request that they use the book to at least try to inform one another of important things. That was only reasonable; the last thing Sakura wanted was to end up dead because she had no idea what mission she was on.

The second was an explanation of the current mission. Sakura read it in a hurry, then flushed the toilet and washed her hands to put up at least a reasonable front before walking back out.

Kakashi looked asleep - on the bed she'd been in, no less - but she wasn't fooled. Sakura sat down against the main door to the room, watching the window with vague interest for a very long time.

* * *

The sun rose the next morning, and Sakura was still on watch, standing up as she saw the light, offering a fake smile as the others in the room woke.

"Eh? Sakura-chan, why didn't you wake me for my turn?" Naruto asked, but Sakura shrugged. "Didn't think I could sleep anyway, so I decided to let you get some rest. I'll be fine."

Kakashi mmmed. "Someone might decide you can't judge for yourself if you work yourself to exhaustion..."

"Well, we should get going anyway, right?" Sakura said, trying to brush it off. "But they know who I am." She said, remembering that note, then looking over at the agent. "We can at least put up a bit of disguise, right? Give me a minute."

Sasuke finally woke up as she finished her own henge and placed one over the agent, snorting. "That's just kind of creepy, you know."

"Oh, shut up." Sakura said, looking like a six year old girl with longer, brown hair in a rather plain dress. "It'll be perfect if we're traveling with the caravan; they'll think we're just kids of some of the merchants, and that you all sent me with the agent seperately. It'll work even better if sensei stays hidden; leaving you two for the merchants is believable."

It wasn't too hard to convince them, at least, although the agent had been less amused at being a slightly older boy; he'd quieted down after Sakura offered to trade disguises.

She folded her legs up under her, feeling the chakra's flows and monitoring them carefully. She had far too small of a pool to work with, and it needed to be fixed, but only time could do that. Besides, she'd never been a true raw powerhouse; her expertise lay in knowing exactly where to stick the straw to shatter the camel.

Kakashi had gotten her and the agent a place in with some of the supplies, not an unreasonable place for children to be, but not exactly where she'd been hoping. She was sitting on a bag of grain, listening carefully to the world around her.

"So.." the boy next to her said, the illusion visible even to Sakura. "Are they really going to believe we're just sitting here?"

"Mm? I don't see why not. We'd be used to it, after all. Don't worry so much; even if they don't take the bait and look for Kakashi, we'll be fine." Sakura hated escort type missions for this reason - clients were obnoxious.

They made it almost halfway to Konoha before the attack came.

* * *

This mission had been a disaster from the start. They'd lost a solid man trying to capture a fucking genin, and he STILL wasn't sure just what the girl had done to his man, but Nanashi had definitely been dead from her kick. Then they'd spent half a day attempting to track down that girl and the jounin, who had vanished along with the target.

He'd finally decided they must have remained with the rest of their team, and he'd led his team after the caravan, finding two genin guarding it. He ordered one of his chuunin that way, sending the remaining to stop the wagons from moving further while he searched for the traitor or either of the other ninja.

In the second wagon he searched, he found something worth finding. "Well, well, what do we have here?" Children, it seemed, but best to be cautious; it wouldn't be like Konoha ninja to use that disguise, but there was always a first time. The two children looked frightened and startled, something ninja rarely were any good at acting like.

It would be beneath him to kill civilian children, of course, but he pulled a kunai, anyway - a cut would be enough to disrupt a henge, after all, and that was all he really needed to do. "Stay quiet, and hold still."

The girl cringed back, starting to cry. He surpressed the natural urge to do what came naturally and stop scaring her, knowing he needed to kill his heart for the mission.

"What's your name, missy? I'm not going to hurt you, just giving you a little mark to remember us by."

She looked up at him, and he had a moment's warning as she opened her mouth, feeling the chakra build as he heard a distant whistle, his vision blurring for a moment.

The children were gone, and he was alone in the cart, and it felt like there were crawling things inside his skin. It had to be a genjutsu, of course, but it still hurt. With a shout and a disruption of his chakra, he was able to break it, he thought.. but the children were still gone.

He finished the seals just in time to replace himself with a nearby crate as the kunai stabbed at his back.

There was the pink-haired genin, off-balance as she stabbed into the crate. The Cloud ninja smirked, gathering lightning chakra, deciding to claim revenge for his comrade before tracking down the boy, who was clearly either their target or the genin's leader.

Electricity arced between his hands before lashing out for the girl; for someone her size, it would be painful and nearly lethal, but still leave a chance to capture and get more slow vengeance later. Most importantly, it would overload her chakra and nervous system, leaving her incapacitated indefinitely, probably even permanently in a young genin.

She attempted to slip away, but he saw it - her technique was good, but she was too slow for a jounin of his capacity. The lightning tendrils brought her down, screaming and thrashing in pain before the lightning faded; her eyes staring up at the sky as she whimpered a few times.

The boy was still nowhere in sight, but he didn't have time to deal with that now - the signs of battle were fading around them, and a silver haired ninja was approaching.

Oh, fuck. He recognized that man. "Sharingan Kakashi." He said, looking away, not meeting the man's eyes.

"Mm. Zumiro the Eel, isn't it?" the other jounin returned, drawing a nod of confirmation.

"She's not dead, yet. Might even be able to recover from it someday; I've heard you have good doctors. You know what I want, right?" Zumiro moved closer to the fallen genin, keeping his eyes firmly on Kakashi's feet, a kunai held at the ready to throw and finish the pink-haired brat.

"I won't allow anyone I'm protecting to die, especially my team." The response was flat. "Besides, you shouldn't distract yourself with her if you want any chance against me."

* * *

Sakura knew quite a lot about pain; causing it, in particular, but also resisting and redirecting it. She was a natural genius of chakra manipulation as well. Being hit by a lightning jutsu was still not a whole hell of a lot of fun, but she was able to prevent her system from frying itself completely as should have happened with a genin-level (and relatively weak in terms of chakra level for a genin) chakra system. Unfortunately, a lot of the redirecting was from her chakra and into her more normal nervous system; easier for a mednin to repair later, but it would play holy hell with her system until then.

That said, she was not as hurt as she was making herself out to be; she was playing possum, with Kakashi having interrupted before she could strike from it, leaving her with plenty of time to wait for an opportunity. That guy was no joke - a jounin, clearly, and a pretty good one at that. And she was still too slow by far, having failed to dodge due to not having anything like her old speed. It'd have to be a surprise, and to get that, she had to keep pretending the jounin had turned her into a vegetable with that jutsu. Besides, while she wasn't completely helpless, she was still hurting.

Then there was someone picking her up, and she heard a voice in her ear as she did her best to continue feigning semi-conciousness. It wasn't the jounin's voice, though, and it wasn't directed at her.

"Back off, or your teammate gets it!"

"Sakura-chan!" That was Naruto, who sounded absolutely torn and enraged. Sweet of him, but he didn't need to worry. "Let her go, I won't let you hurt her too!"

Sakura came alive at once, opening her eyes and grabbing at the man's arm with both her hands, the one she just knew was holding a kunai to her throat. He naturally started to drive it at her at the same time, and would easily overpower her given a few seconds, but those seconds were all she needed to buy.

Her chakra concentrated into the back of her head, her hair stabbed in small spikes up and back, driving into the man. Right about his neck and head level. She wasn't used to long hair, and it wouldn't survive this, but this would probably be amazing for her reputation and it was something a genin really could do, given proper chakra control.

The man gave a gurgle, and she felt a warm sensation down her back, as Naruto gave another cry of surprise and she was able to push the man's arm away from her and off, a thump as he hit the ground.

She laughed, running her trembling hands back through her hair, a sticky mess, before hugging herself. She needed to bring herself under control; cutting completely loose and giving in to bloodlust wouldn't do, after all.

Even if it would be fun.

Naruto, apparently mistaking her laughter for hysteria, looked horribly worried, reaching for her shoulder. "Sakura-chan..."

Sasuke stumbled up behind him, clutching at a wound on his arm, his eyes red with the Sharingan. Sakura automatically lowered her eyes, watching his feet. "Wh.. You did this?" He asked, and Sakura could feel his eyes on her. She didn't deign to answer, turning away to look for Kakashi. Or where the guy they were escorting had gone, for that matter.

Kakashi landed in front of them, a cut along his cheek, approaching his exposed eye. "He fled." He explained, briefly, "But he may be getting reinforcements. We need to get the client and run; where is he?"

Naruto looked around. "Hey, yeah, where did that guy go?"

Sakura shrugged. "He's around, I'm sure. Do you really think there are reinforcements?"

Sasuke lashed out at their sensei with a kunai; he vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Wha, what are you doing?!?" Naruto screamed in panic. "You killed Kakashi-sensei!"

"That was an enemy's clone, idiot." Sasuke said, contempt in his voice.

"Oh. Well, where is he, then?"

"He's probably fighting the jounin. The guy seemed pretty strong." Sakura said, smiling to herself. "He got me a bit; my chakra's okay, but my normal nervous system feels wrong. I don't think I'll be able to move very well."

Sasuke eyed her again, looking down at the corpse. "Right... We should go help, though."

"Do you really think you'd be able to? We should stay here and guard the agent." Sakura said, dropping down to sit on a box of supplies.

"I thought you didn't know where he was?"

Sakura thumped the box she was sitting on with a smile. "As I said, I'm sure he's around."

* * *

It was nearly fifteen minutes before Kakashi made it back to them; the real one, this time, not that that had stopped Naruto from throwing a kunai at him.

"You should watch out, you might hurt someone with that." Kakashi said, catching it. "Where is he?"

Sakura got off the crate carefully, opening it to reveal the agent inside. "He's fine, don't worry. Did you kill that jounin?"

Kakashi looked at Sakura for a few seconds, his exposed eye widening as he took in the mess on her back and hair, then looked to the corpse on the ground. "He got away, unfortunately, but I did wound him. I'm surprised you're able to move after being hit by a jutsu like that; what happened to that?" He gestured at the corpse.

"He tried to take me hostage, and I know how to control my hair with chakra." Sakura said simply.

Kakashi frowned. "You don't seem very upset about it, at least." Most genin would be with their first kill; it was only natural.

"He WAS going to kill me if Naruto didn't back off, you know." Sakura pointed out, turning back. "It ruined my hair, though! I'm not going to be able to move very quickly if we need to flee, or for very long." She added, sitting back down next to the crate, her words starting to slur.

Kakashi frowned at her. "Mm. You should ride with the cart. We need to get this moving."

Sakura just nodded, and Kakashi gestured at Naruto and Sasuke to guard her and the agent.

It was a bumpy ride back to Konoha; Sakura had passed out minutes into it, however, so it didn't bother her.

* * *

Another dream, Sakura realized quickly, of her twisted self's past.

Though this one at least was starting off interesting.

She was sitting in a tree, a camp visible off in the distance... And there was a hand!

"Naruto, not now!" She whispered, laughing, swatting the offending hand away. "We've got rebels to crush, first."

Naruto grinned, moving the hand from where it had been to her shoulder. "Fine, fine. You never let me have fun, you know."

"Just for that, I'm going in first."

"Aw, come on, Sakura-chan!"

The last word echoed, and she felt herself shaken. "Sakura-chan, wake up, please!"

"Idiot, you really shouldn't do that. You're just going to make her worse."

She felt like shit, worse than after the party they'd had to celebrate jounin... And, beginning to try to move, she realized what had happened to her body. Beginning to heal it, she sat up, a groan of pain escaping as she did. Healing nerve damage on yourself was hard and it was better to not numb the pain to assist in diagnosing the damage.

"Sakura, you're awake?" Kakashi's voice cut in over Naruto and Sasuke, his surprise clear to her at least.

"Yeah.." She ran her hand through her hair nervously, pulling the hand out and making a face as she felt the mess there. "I don't remember much about what happened, though." Best to be honest there; clearly something bad had.

"We're back at Konoha now, anyway; almost to the hospital, in fact."

"Did we already report in?" She asked, surprised.

"I took the agent to the Hokage. The rest can wait until you and Sasuke are treated."

Sakura nodded, smiling at the worried-looking Naruto and maybe-worried Sasuke before leaning her head back. She'd done it almost automatically, but if she was going to be examined she was going to come up completely clean after her healing. Hopefully Kakashi would be neglectful and she could work the system well enough to cover it up. "I'm okay to walk in, I think. I'm feeling a lot better." She climbed out of the cart they'd been riding in, and found that they were indeed right near the hospital.

As she walked to the door, faking unsteadiness, she nearly was hit by it swinging open. Jumping back, she blinked in surprise as she saw a familiar face.

"S.. Sakura." came the voice of Yamanaka Ino.

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

"Ino? What's wrong?" Sakura asked, looking at the expression on her rival's face.

She really wasn't at all prepared for Ino to burst into tears, burying her face in Sakura's shoulder with a hug. Sakura froze at that, trying to figure out just what the hell had happened. The clone her other self had sent for her had said she'd screwed with their memories somehow, but just what had she done to make Ino openly seek Sakura for sympathy?

"We had a mission that failed." Shikamaru's voice came from behind Ino; Sakura looked up. "Asuma-sensei died, as did the family we were protecting."

He seemed unusually grim, and no surprise with news like that. Sakura felt the shock go through her system at that announcement, nearly slipping under Ino's weight at that - and Ino didn't seem inclined to let go. "Wha.. What happened?"

"We were attacked. Whoever did it had a lot of knowledge of mental jutsu; our memories are scrambled with lots of false memories. Ridiculous things like you or Kiba attacking us. It's impossible to sort anything out, apparently."

Naruto had come up behind Sakura by then, and snagged her arm. "Hey, Sakura, I know you're worried about them, but you need to go get treated - you're hurt!"

Sakura nodded, though she had already healed herself, and gave Ino one squeeze before squirming loose. The other girl was looking at her in horror now. "You're hurt, too?"

"Oh, uh, we were attacked as well..." Sakura started, trying to think of a way to phrase it that wouldn't make the matter worse.

"She was hurt by a jounin, but she killed what Kakashi's pretty certain was a chuunin!" Naruto said, trying to leap to the defense of Sakura's abilities.

"A jounin?" Ino said, now starting to pull Sakura into the hospital. "I shouldn't hold you up, if you need to be treated..."

With that, Ino, Shikamaru, and Naruto began to force her to be seen, and Sakura started thinking about how to fool a diagnosis.

* * *

Several days later, during a team meeting, Kakashi managed to cheer her up a bit - she'd gotten only vague answers from the other self to her notes left asking for details on what had happened, and she was quickly coming to a conclusion she'd have to do something about it.

"I've decided to enter the three of you in the chuunin exam."

Sakura looked up at that, Kakashi having pulled the forms out of nowhere to hand out to his genin. "Oh, really?"

"The chuunin exam? What's that?" Naruto asked; Sakura rolled her eyes a bit. She'd forgotten how... like this he could be. She just let Kakashi explain, filling out her own form.

"You don't have to decide right away, but if you want to take the exam, fill out the form and show up when it says." Kakashi said. "I'll let you three have today to think it over." He waved and vanished in a puff of smoke, to Sakura's annoyance.

Sakura grinned at her teammates. "See you both there, then. I'm going to go train a little, alone." She had a confrontation to get out of the way, after all, before the chuunin exam happened.

Sakura headed for a nice, quiet training ground she knew, carefully attempting to feel for anyone following her. Not sensing anyone, for the moment, she poured enough chakra into the shadow clone technique for the clone to last a day or so...

She really had no idea how Naruto did it. It was disorienting as hell, each and every time she used the damned thing, and even just before leaving she'd never used more than a handful of clones at a time.

The worst part was immediately after using the technique. It always took her a few horrible seconds to figure out if she was the clone or not. She'd learned to remember exactly where she was standing.. Oh, and this was the clone. Lovely.

"How the hell does Naruto DO this?" she heard the original ask, and looking at herself with a faked grin, she replied "Too dumb to care if he's the clone or not. I'll make sure to last until you're back, if I can." The original nodded, pulling the pocket mirror out and staring into it for almost fifteen seconds.

Sakura watched the change come over her, the mirror dropping from her hand, her eyes completely blank, mind clearly vacant for a solid time... And then, with a snap, she'd come to, the eyes having a sharp look in them.

"...You, huh?"

"Oh, I thought it was time we talked. And, by the way, don't try to change in a fight; I'm just a clone, and I could have killed you fifty times over while you were helpless. Which just sounds unhappy for all of us."

That drew a rather unsettling grin from her counterpart. "What do you want, anyway? This is kind of risky, you know, this near the village..."

"We were entered in the chuunin exams. And I wanted to ask about Asuma's team again; I still don't understand what happened."

"I told you. I screwed with their memories, then dumped them all outside the house; the ninja you'd warned me about were gone by then. I couldn't have known there was another one to be hired, or that there was anyone to hire; even then, a jounin should have been fine!"

The clone let off a sigh, unable to detect if there was a lie in that. "Fine. Then I wanted to give you a warning in person, one I think you'll appreciate if it's you when the time comes.. Orochimaru's going to be around during the chuunin exams. And he's coming after Sasuke."

That just drew a burst of laughter from the genjutsu expert. "Sasuke, huh? Really? But it's not like I'm going to be able to take on that man, you know, if he's anywhere near as strong. I never really fought him personally in my own world, either; Itachi-sama killed him. Thankfully. You know that already, though... I've dreamed of you. Weaker than me, wasting your talent on healing, but you were stronger than THIS body. You have to know its limits."

"Right. Well, I thought..." But she cut off as the other self made a shushing gesture, eyes scanning the trees.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are~." The words were said in a singsong voice, and trailed off into a whistle; the clone felt herself growing tired for a moment before hurridly using a personal dispel technique to counter it.

The genjutsu didn't trap whoever was in the woods, either, but she felt the pulse of a basic counter technique going off.

"It's not polite to spy on a kunoichi's training sessions." Sakura said, as a masked man dropped from the trees.

"You'll not live to enter the chuunin exams!" The man cried, charging forward. Sakura drew a kunai and struck, quickly, the man vanishing and being replaced by a log that was sliced in half.

Sakura tilted her head, whistling again and seeming to listen, before shaking it. "He's leaving. What the hell is wrong with people here?"

The clone shrugged. "Probably a test to make certain we're ready; they do that, sometimes, with rookies."

"Well, clearly we can't talk comfortably here, now can we? I suppose at night, but that's awfully rough on building chakra. What's with Sasuke, exactly? I still haven't gotten that story; he was a non-entity at home, weaker than just about everyone here is, much less those of us in Orochimaru's little upcoming elite programs." There was bitterness and anger obvious in that statement, and the clone winced, remembering some of her own dreams on the subject. There had been some little happiness, but...

"Please, I just want to be certain that you know how dangerous the exam is going to be this time if you end up in control during it. The second test is up to five days, and Orochimaru's going to be hunting us - I don't think you can get Naruto and Sasuke to avoid him, not when he's tracking Sasuke. I'd almost want to skip it, but I don't want to hold them back. Or be stuck with D ranked missions anymore, either. Naruto needs this, besides..."

"Don't worry so damn much. I'll try to avoid Orochimaru if at all possible. If nothing else, he won't have a damn clue who I am, so that'll be a small advantage, right?" It had the ring of trying to convince herself, however, and they feel silent after that, the clone sighing eventually.

"I'm going home, to wait until it's okay to dispel. Don't wear yourself out too much; we're starting to get a reputation for foolishness in training, you know. And there's only so much medical jutsu can do to help with speeding up recovery from training."

* * *

At the Chuunin Exam:

Some part of Sakura was almost looking forward to this. Orochimaru, despite her assurances to the other her, would be well beyond her ability to take on in a fair fight just now, but it sounded like he had no real interest in her in any case. Genin, on the other hand.. Could be entertaining, especially against those not from Konoha.

Wouldn't do to go tormenting or killing her allies, after all, at least if it could be avoided. They'd be her army in the future.

Still, the larger part of Sakura wanted to go back to bed. These exams were much too early for her tastes; she'd spent most of the last eight years as a night owl, and they were probably going to be fairly boring other than trying to avoid Orochimaru.

The exam room was extremely crowded; Naruto had yelled at the entire crowd when they'd come in, and a lot of the older genin were shooting glares at them.

One she vaguely recognized as having been a mednin in her time was trying to shush them; both the members of her team and the members of another rookie team were gathered around him. Inuzuka Kiba was among them, and she grinned to herself and joined them, catching part of the conversation as they did."

"..about these guys?" Kiba said, gesturing at Naruto and Sasuke - and herself as she joined. "How'd they trick their sensei into letting them come along?"

"Hmm. Haruno Sakura, right?" Kabuto said, looking at her.

"How'd you know?" She asked, idly.

"You have a reputation. Hair that color is quite uncommon." She just shook her head, a little disgusted at the reason, but trying to hide it. "Anyway," the man continued, "Let us see." He flipped a card around, and a picture of her appeared, along with some basic statistics.

"Excellent chakra control, but it doesn't have much on any techniques. Poor physical skills. You've managed to put yourself in the hospital twice with training, I see; working on that? You should take it easier. An A ranked mission, and a confirmed kill of a chuunin level opponent." The man almost sounded impressed at that, and Sakura just smiled at him as Kiba looked at her in a bit of surprise.

"Really, you all had an A rank?"

"It was an emergency situation while we were on a C rank." Sakura explained, deciding to humor him. She'd always liked Kiba, even if he was a bit obnoxious. "And you shouldn't talk about people so freely. Not everyone in here is from Konoha, after all."

"It's nothing that couldn't be found out by other villages. Candidates for chuunin have to present qualifications to the judges beyond just the test." The man said, to her annoyance.

She offered a smile, and moved away from the group, only looking back when the man evidently said something to provoke an attack from the crowd; a Sound ninja. Sound... Orochimaru's village, here.

The proctor stopped the fight, however, and then they settled in for the first exam.

* * *

Written exams were such a waste of time, though it had been good fun seeing Ibiki again. He'd almost been like at home, even. The third member of the true rulers of her Konoha, ahead of herself, behind Itachi, Ibiki had controlled internal security in places under Konoha control. She'd led efforts to get new territory, and what diplomacy Konoha bothered to exercise, and Itachi had been the Hokage of the village itself. Realistically, though, unless all three of them were divided on an issue it came down to majority two of three, and on most things they either agreed or respected each other's territory.

On the other hand, the proctor of the second exam had once had her in a jail cell mostly naked.

This was a definate downgrade, especially considering the psychotic woman was glaring at her. Sakura was just offering a sweet smile in return; she didn't really want to have to fight Anko, much less fight the woman in front of all these people.

She might or might not have any connection to Orochimaru in this timeline, but the duel between Itachi and Anko during the coup had been the stuff of myths in Konoha, well above and beyond the confrontation with Orochimaru himself which Sakura had been present for - mostly because Itachi had allowed Orochimaru to flee rather than risk their injured forces, and with most of the elite behind the coup, Orochimaru had done so.

Anko hadn't survived it, of course, but she'd actually injured Itachi.

Sakura's hand moved, catching the kunai that Anko had thrown at her face. "Quit zoning out, pinky!" came the woman's yell. "Sign the damn form or leave." Form? Sasuke was holding one out, looking annoyed. Not that he ever looked like much else.

Sakura took it, swiping a pen from Sasuke as well and signing it. "What's the format? I wasn't really paying attention."

"We have to get a set of scrolls, then get to the tower in the middle of the forest. Each team gets one of the pair of scrolls."

Sakura nodded, zoning back out as they went into the proctor's tent to receive a scroll in private, ignoring as Sasuke kept it.

"Hey, Sakura? You okay?" Naruto asked, getting a more genuine smile back.

"Of course! Just excited, is all. It sounds like a lot of fun." Sakura said, considering. It was really a nice format, especially the rules; there might just be an acceptable layer of steel beneath the soft exterior of this Konoha, after all.

She followed the others into the forest, listening carefully for the sounds of approaching enemies. Sasuke was giving her a glare again; rather annoying, really.

"I've got to piss!" Naruto said, heading off into the forest even as Sasuke turned away from glaring at her to try and catch him to talk about a password.

"Naruto, wait... Tch." Clearly making the decision not to follow the blond into the trees, Sasuke folded his arms.

Sakura shook her head, sighing as she waited on Naruto. After a couple of minutes, she gave up and decided to at least start a conversation with him. "We should try to hurry. Finishing this exam early would probably be safer, and an advantage in whatever's next."

"Hmph. Scared, are you?" Sasuke said, to her annoyance. Before she could really reply, however, Naruto stumbled back in, and Sasuke's attention wavered. "Hey, idiot, don't wonder off. How did we start our last mission?"

"The Hokage gave us a mission to escort a caravan."

Sasuke threw a kunai at the fake Naruto, and Sakura started to actually look him over, vaguely interested. It wasn't a bad illusion at all, though Naruto probably would never catch a kunai with his tongue like that.

Oh, hell, that was one of Orochimaru's jutsus - she'd hoped to avoid this by racing through the forest! Sakura's eyes widened, and while she shrugged off the killing intent, she had no intention of staying and trying to fight off Orochimaru.

No, this was a problem best solved by trying to run. He wanted to place a seal of some kind on Sasuke; the other Sakura thought that had turned Sasuke into a monster, and seemed to believe that if that happened, he'd eventually betray Konoha.

It seemed like a good reason to kill the bastard to her, but that would have to wait until after the exam.

The snake was in disguise at the moment, and he clearly wasn't going all out as he started towards them, Sasuke frozen by the killing intent for the moment. Sakura grabbed for his arm, pulling him away as Orochimaru flung the kunai back, the aim clearly for Sasuke.

Sakura started whistling as she dragged Sasuke off, the black haired boy's sense returning as he got several scrapes, attempting to throw up enough of an illusion to get away from the Sannin.

"A sound based illusion?" The fucker was fast, that was for certain; Sakura stopped suddenly as she saw him in front of her. "Now who in the Leaf taught you something like that?" And he sounded INTERESTED. Today was getting worse by the second. Sakura took a quick toss at him with a kunai, more to distract him than anything else, and then Sasuke charged forward into a fight with him..

"Dammit, you idiot, don't charge HIM!" Sakura yelled as the pair exchanged blows.

A voice behind her hissed out, "Do you know who I am? How interesting.."

She wheeled around, pulling another kunai and stashing out. She sliced through the man with the chakra edge blade, the earth clone crumbling.. But five more emerged from the ground, and she began to back up, now worried about her position.

"It's your teammate I came for, but if you want to really refine that technique, the Sound Village could use more genin with... potential." That brought a bit of panic to the front of Sakura's mind; she'd been a product of Orochimaru-designed training, but she had no desire to repeat it.

"Nnn.. I'd really rather not." She admitted, shuffling her feet back as the clones moved in on her menacingly, trying to keep a solid stance. These were just clones, and she should be fine on them, but Orochimaru used poisons and she couldn't afford to risk taking even a single hit.

Two of them struck out, and she was able to move faster than the clones could, countering with sharp enough wounds to the arm on one and the leg on another to dispel them... Even as a few more appeared around her, surrounding her.

She snagged her signature weapons from her pouch, a pair of simple chained kunai, running chakra into them.

She swung them about like a blender, and was almost completely successful in her hopes of annihilating the clones with her taijutsu technique. Unfortunately, the 'almost' covered one of the clones slicing down into the back of her leg, causing a painful and crippling but definitely not life-threatening wound, before she managed to dispel it.

The injury would slow her and draw predators, and she definitely didn't want to cede control to the mednin.

More concerning, however, was that Sasuke and the actual Orochimaru were nowhere in sight.

She turned around, looking desperately for signs of where they had gone while the clones had occupied her, and saw none. In spite of her efforts, she'd completely lost track of both members of her team during an attempt by Orochimaru, exactly what she'd been trying to avoid.

Sakura heard a crash in the distance. The far distance. She started making her way towards it, slowed considerably by the leg wound.

* * *

AN: Bit of a cliff hanger, but I should have the next chapter up relatively quickly, covering the rest of the forest.

Adding a bit of a feature for the next few chapters; character profiles, featuring basic ability summaries for characters. They're mostly only going to be things a close enough reading of the text would provide, but in particular AU Sakura's are a helpful summary of the history available throughout. And she's the first to be covered, immeadiately below:

Name: Haruno Sakura

Age: 12, was 21.

Affiliation: Konoha

Ranks and positions: Jounin; General of the Konoha Expansionary Forces, chief diplomat of Konoha.

Basic history: Drafted into a special training program at a very young age following the murder of a classmate who had been bullying her, Sakura was identified as a prodigy of chakra control from a young age and raised accordingly, trained as a team that also included Naruto. Upon becoming a genin, she was subjected to the same test that all potential genin from civilian backgrounds were subjected to - killing her parents as a mission to prove her loyalty. While Sakura passed the test, it added to her hidden anger about the training she and others had been subjected to, in particular medical expiriments that had drawn out her natural bloodlust and caused her to completely lose control while wounded severely enough.

This eventually came to a head when Naruto was pulled from her team and sent out on borderline suicidal missions, and Sakura was the first person to join with Uchiha Itachi in his planning of a coup against Orochimaru. Sakura was instrumental in identifying loyalists and recruiting those with any doubts about Orochimaru, and when the move was made over three-forths of those at a jounin or better level in the village joined in, leading to a relatively painless victory.

Following the coup, Sakura assumed the position she held for the rest of the time before being pulled back in time; most of the details of this time have not yet been revealed in the story.

Abilities:

Taijutsu: Sakura practices what could be called an ultimate offense style - she has the ability to focus her chakra to provide a super-razor sharp edge to nearly anything. Her speciality is a pair of kunai on chains; the chains are as much or more dangerous as the kunai themselves.

Genjutsu: Sakura has a wide array of illusionary arts, the vast majority of which she controls via sound, either whistling or singing typically. Many of these are to provide concealment, or to cause severe amounts of pain to the target.

Mind arts: Sakura's got forbidden jutsu allowing her to screw with and damage the minds of others. In particular, she can interfere with the signals they receive, implanting memories (though not erasing ones that are already there) or causing incredible amounts of pain.


	9. Chapter 9

AN: No, really, she's a sadist. You were warned.

* * *

Sakura's eyes darted around as she made her way through the forest, looking for any signs of her teammates. For all her strengths, tracking most definitely wasn't really one of them, and her leg wound was bothering her quite badly.

It took her nearly fifteen minutes to track down her team, though she found them together.

"Damn it." Sakura said, seeing the pair unconcious in the mud. She hurridly limped over, giving them a cursory examination while looking for any signs of Orochimaru's continued presence. She still wanted to keep control, but if she had to she'd give it up.

Naruto was the priority for her, of course, but he didn't really have any visable wounds. Probably the demon had already healed him from whatever had been done to him.

Sasuke, of course, had the cursed scar on his neck, in addition to a few other minor wounds. The mednin was sure to bitch about this...

If not for her desire to continue the exam, Sakura would just go ahead and kill him now, but she resolved to do so when she had another opportunity. He'd not be turning on Konoha if she had anything to say about it.

Sakura dragged the pair to an at least somewhat defensible position, sighing as she did so. "Guess I'm on watch duty." She muttered to herself, before brightening up. Someone was certain to track them down, and with her rather obvious leg wound they would look like easy meat, even after she finished bandaging it.

If she were really lucky, it wouldn't be a Konoha team, and she could work out some frustration.

* * *

"There we go." Dosu said, a sadistic smile on his face. "Found them. It'll be easy work, too; looks like pinky's the only one left up, and she's hurt."

Kin nodded in response, looking down through the clearing, spotting the girl's incredibly obvious hair. "Should we just ambush her? She looks half asleep anyway." They were ordered to kill Uchiha Sasuke, but they might as well be safe and take out the rest of his team as well.

Zaku smirked. "Let me do it. I'm way too bored, and I haven't gotten to use my arms in too long."

"I know you're there, idiots." A voice drifted through from the clearing. "So why don't you just come out?"

Dosu shrugged, gesturing to Zaku. "So much for an ambush. You still want to take care of it? We can say hello first." The three of them dropped out of the trees, giving their best intimidating looks at the pink-haired genin. She hadn't even rated more than a name in the mission briefing.

Right now, she wasn't even standing. She might not even be ABLE to stand; her leg looked pretty horrible even through the bandage.

So it came as a bit of a surprise when she started making threats, instead of begging for mercy.

"I am in a foul mood, but my leg does hurt. So I'm going to give you a chance. If you don't leave, right now, and leave your scroll behind for me, I'll decorate the trees with your intestines as a warning to the next group to come along to do as I ask."

Dosu just laughed in response, not even bothering with an explanation of their goals. Instead, he gestured to Zaku, who leveled both his hands at the small girl. "We might have let you live if you hadn't been an idiot like that." He fired the blasts from his arms...

And then it went horribly, horribly wrong.

The image of the girl flickered as the air passed through it, but it was clearly a clone or genjutsu of some sort. Kin started to look around for the girl, but there wasn't time to do more than glance around once before she heard a horrifying howl of pain.

It was Zaku. She wasn't certain how, but the pink haired girl had gotten inside of his guard and had sliced his stomach open with a kunai.

The village of Sound was not a happy place, and had more than its fair share of horrors. The next few seconds were enough to give pause to Kin and Dosu both, however, and she at least couldn't bring herself to move as the girl seemed to link a kunai in to their teammate's guts and rip them out, the screams only getting all the more horrifying.

"Promise made, promise kept." The girl said in a sing song voice, as though she weren't now covered in blood with a still-twitching and screaming dying man at her feet. She took a few steps back and turned towards the remaining pair of sound ninja, now smiling. Kin raised her hands defensively, automatically taking a step back.

Dosu sounded shaken as he spoke up. "Listen. We'll give you our scroll and go." He took it out of his bag. "With him dead, we're out of this exam anyway." Orochimaru would probably kill them for it, but they could at least try to flee.

"Oh, no, I'd hate to break up such a pleasant team..." Sakura said, bringing her kunai back level. "I mean, where's your loyalty to your friend? Shouldn't you want to avenge him, or at least join him?"

Dosu growled with anger, charging forward. "Fine, you bitch! Don't forget we gave you a chance when you're in hell!" He rapped a kunai against his metal arm, directing the sound waves at the pink-haired kunoichi.

She tilted her head, clearly a little dizzy from the attack but seemingly faring better than most who were hit by it. Her eyes darted to the device as she stumbled away. "Is that.. Sound wave based, then? Hmph. You'd use that on ME?" Forming a quick set of seals, she whistled shrilly... And then it was cut off. As was Zaku's whimpering, and all of the noises of the forest.

Kin tried to speak up, but she couldn't hear anything as she did. Then the pink-haired girl was attacking with a kunai.

Dosu blocked the first strike with his metal arm, but the kunai seemed to go right through it, slicing through the metal and flesh, which fell to the ground sickeningly.

It was followed a moment later by Dosu, as the girl cut through his legs and then stomach in two more lightening-fast strikes. So much, with just a kunai...

Kin stepped back, then turned to flee, absolutely terrified now.

She made it less than ten feet before she felt pain blossom in her legs.

* * *

Naruto woke up hurridly, feeling a weight against him as he did. He looked over, and he was rather shocked to see Sakura curled up against him. Bloodstains were all over her, and she had a halfhazard and especially blood-soaked bandage wrapped about her leg. He had to pry her loose after a few seconds consideration. "Sakura-chan?" he asked as he sat up. She didn't wake, but he heard a clatter, and three scrolls fell to the ground - two heaven, one earth.

Naruto grabbed them, looking over them in confusion, then around. They seemed to be hidden under some branches, with Sasuke nearby, also unconcious. "What happened? Sakura-chan?" He shook her, but she didn't wake still. At least she seemed to be breathing steadily enough.

There was a sudden pressure, as though there were something dark and horrible around...

"Uugh.." Sasuke sat up, clutching a hand to his neck. "..Naruto?" He asked, and the pressure seemed to fade.

"Bastard." Naruto acknowledged. "I can't wake Sakura up, but she has scrolls. More than we need."

Sasuke kneeled over Sakura, checking her over quickly, then looking under the bandage. "Looks like chakra exhaustion again, plus a bad cut to her leg. Three times in two months, now, isn't it? She's going to end up killing herself." He sounded dispassionate about it, though. "I don't know how long has passed, and she might need real treatment. We should head for the tower. Can you carry her?"

Naruto nodded, using a clone to help pick Sakura up between them.

Sasuke parted the branches, then visable double-took in shock. Naruto soon saw why as he hurried up.

Blood and guts were strewn through the area; Naruto couldn't help but stare, then looked back at Sakura. "Did Sakura-chan do this?" A corpse was laying in the grass nearby; a girl with black hair and a Sound headband. She was missing most of her body below the waist.

"Th.. there's no way, not by herself. Come on, we need to go." Sasuke said, hurrying away from the mess. He didn't want to think about it, and the blood would draw predators in this forest.

* * *

A mednin had an inherient sense of her own body. As Sakura's eyes opened, hers was screaming alerts at her, not least of which was a pounding headache. In spite of opening her eyes, everything around her was a blur, and so she shut them once again.

She took an accounting: An injury to her leg... rather bad one. Infection already setting in, for days now. Someone besides her had started treatment, but hadn't really gotten much but the surface and it was flaring up quickly again. Her chakra system was showing the signs of exhaustion, again, which also explained the general feeling of awfulness.

Someone was making quite a lot of noise over her. She tried to ignore them, but they were being rather insistant.

"...AKURA-CHAN, ARE YOU AWAKE?"

She sat up, slowly. "Ugh.. Naruto, shut up, would you? Where are we?"

"Since she's awake, you pass the second exam. Congratulations."

Sakura looked around, things coming into focus. They were in the tower.. "We made it?"

Sasuke was looking at her rather oddly. "Right. Barely, though, you've been out for days. We ran into that white-haired genin again, and he patched you up enough to stabilize you, but we couldn't wake you up."

"Right.."

"Not to interrupt," Iruka said, "But you're barely in time. The third exam is about to start." He looked at Sakura in concern. "You should probably take it easy, okay? That leg wound looks nasty."

Sakura swore to herself mentally; with Iruka seeing it, she couldn't really heal herself all the way up. Terrific.

Her control was just the slightest bit off, but she was able to adjust things enough to shut off the pain, allowing her to stand and with Naruto's help walk down to the arena. Ignoring the Hokage's speech, she examined the competition. There were fewer teams, this time, it looked like - Ino's team wasn't there, of course, but it looked like the sound team was missing for some reason as well. Five teams left in, fifteen people... And Kabuto gave up at the first opportunity. She took Naruto's help getting up the stairs, again, not wanting to stress her leg more outside of the match than she had to.

The matchups would certainly be different, and unfortunately her odds of facing Gaara had gone up. She wouldn't have much of a chance against him while hurt, and while it wasn't absolutely vital she become a chuunin this early, it could only help if her standing in the village rose.

As it happened, though, she didn't have long to wait at all, and it wasn't even a particularly horrible matchup. She was up first, against Kiba. He had a habit of underestimating opponents and particularly didn't respect most kunoichi, or maybe it had just been her and Ino; she'd eventually earned his respect, but that had been after he'd grown out of it.

She walked down to the floor with a smile, looking at Kiba.

"Hey, are you sure you even want to fight like that?" He asked, grinning. "I don't mind the free ride, but I don't really want to hurt a girl either."

Sakura shrugged. "Just get on with it. I'll be fine."

Kiba nodded, and with a feral grin took to the air in his spin move. Sakura watched it closely, carefully.. He wouldn't be worried about a counterattack with a punch, certainly. Not from her.

There was a near collision as Kiba came in, going for a quick knockout.. And Sakura collapsed to the ground, allowing her leg to give out, going under the attack. Kiba landed on the ground behind her as she rolled back up to her feet. The angle had been all wrong; she'd have broken her arm.

"You can't dodge like that for long, but I guess I have to respect you for trying. Even if you do kind of suck."

Sakura rolled her eyes at that, and Kiba was up in the air, coming at her again. Bad angle again, for a punch, but... Mentally bracing herself, Sakura struck out with her leg, knocking Kiba out of the air and into the opposite wall. It wouldn't be hard enough to kill him, but a concussion would be a nice lesson about the weaknesses of that technique.

Of course, the blow came at a price, her pain suppressing jutsu overwhelmed by the moment; she allowed herself one nice, soothing scream of rage, pain, and anger before the medics came out to look at the both of them, after she was declared the winner.

* * *

AN: Quick fight, but really; even hurt and without her full chakra reserves, she's a jounin who specializes in a deceptive taijutsu strength. She's an unfair match for Kiba.

The rest of the prelims next time, and there'll be some fun for the Naruto/Sakura fans, at least in the form of flashbacks.


	10. Chapter 10

Whatever had happened in the forest, Kakashi decided, he might almost prefer not knowing it. Sasuke had refused to seek treatment for his seal until his fight, Naruto hadn't had much useful information at all, and now he had to talk to by far the most stressful genin he'd ever had the displeasure of knowing.

The medics had had her for most of the current match between Hyuuga Neji and the sand kunoichi, which was going longer than he'd have expected. The kunoichi was a ranged specialist, and they'd been very carefully avoiding one another's attacks for nearly ten minutes when the pink-haired kunoichi made her way back to the watching genin, her leg wrapped far more carefully now.

"How is it?" Kakashi asked, thinking that would at least open the conversation.

"Mm? Oh, not too bad." Sakura said, seeming distracted as she watched the fight. Kakashi waited for her to continue, but the pink-haired girl didn't even spare him a glance.

"That was an impressive counter against the Inuzuka. You hadn't shown anything like that in training, though." Kakashi tried, before turning back to the match. Talking to the genin wasn't worth it, not even if he probably needed to find out how she'd learned such a thing. He'd talk to the medics for more to confront her with, first, and in any case Sasuke's seal was a more immediate concern than Sakura's seemingly suicidal training practices. Wherever she'd come up with the kind of strength to do a strike enhanced by that much, she wasn't really that important in the end, not next to the other two and particularly Sasuke. Something just bothered him about her.

Sakura winced a bit, he noticed, as Neji finally caught up to the kunoichi, taking her down in a ruthless series of strikes. The blond didn't look horribly injured, for such a long fight with a Hyuuga, at least.

Sasuke was called down for the next match, in fact, one with the Aburame clan heir. Kakashi drifted over to warn Sasuke against letting the seal loose, turning his attention away from the distraction of Sakura to the student who really did need it most.

* * *

"Hmph. Sakura took your teammate out in one hit; I hope you can at least be a little more entertaining?" Sasuke taunted, as he watched the other genin closely. Kakashi'd warned him against using too much chakra, so he'd have to just strike with taijutsu. He didn't remember Shino being anything above competent at it, anyway.

"You should give up, or you'll regret this missed opportunity to avoid the pain." Shino replied, prompting a furious assault from Sasuke. Furious and foolish, of course.

A wave of bugs rolled out from Shino's body as Sasuke pressured him, settling on the black-haired genin and beginning to devour his chakra. Sasuke charged through them, and Shino was forced to block the attack, making his way steadily back along the arena, trying to drag things out while his bugs worked on the genin's chakra supply.

"You will be passing out... now." Shino said, finally, as he landed from a backwards jump.

"Damn you!" Sasuke screamed, as, to Shino's alarm, black lines grew across his face, and new chakra flooded his body. Sasuke struck again, and Shino was forced to block it, a sickening crack as the bug user's arm was broken...

...And then Kakashi was there, Sasuke held back by the white haired man. "Sasuke forfeits." Kakashi said, ignoring Sasuke's scream of protest, manhandling the genin into following him out of the arena.

Shino stared in what might have been shock, before shaking his head and moving back to rejoin his team.

* * *

Sakura was left alone after Sasuke's match; Kakashi and Sasuke vanished, and Naruto was called down for a battle with one of Kabuto's teammates. Her thoughts, much as she wanted them to be, were not on Naruto's match.

No, they were much more stressful than that. She could almost feel her mind straining under the weight of it.

"Naruto.. What should I do? You were supposed to be with me, and I definitely wasn't supposed to be considered insane, or be completely out of control half the time." She hadn't allowed herself to miss him, because he was right there... But it wasn't him, wasn't the Naruto she'd shared experiences with, or loved, and she didn't know how to make things better. She'd been all about details, precision, control... and he'd been the one with big dreams and big plans.

She hadn't managed to change things nearly enough. Hell, if anything, it was in a worse situation than she remembered - Sasuke wasn't in the Finals, Asuma was dead, Orochimaru had still sealed Sasuke. Shikamaru, who'd been promoted to chuunin the last time, wasn't even in the exam. She was going to have to take drastic action, one that made her want to throw up even thinking about it even though she'd tried to do it before.

Still, there was a huge difference between trying to kill Sasuke then, when he'd committed all those horrors and had been much stronger than her to boot, versus murdering him now to prevent what he WOULD do. A large part of her at the time had expected killing him to be a suicide mission, even if it hadn't worked out quite that way; doing it now would be like stealing candy from a baby. Which was why she needed to do it now, before he had Orochimaru guarding him.

She looked up, and the child Naruto was struggling against an opponent Sakura couldn't even really remember, sad as that was. A flicker of rage at the unfairness of it all sparked in her mind, and she found herself on her feet and screaming before she could help it.

"Naruto, don't you dare lose to that fucking nobody! I'll kick your ass for the next week if you lose to somebody like that!"

The other genin and Naruto both looked at her - in fact, quite a few people were staring at her. She growled a little, sitting back down and watching Naruto, who seemed to be at least a little inspired by her, judging by his rallying with a fierce taijutsu combo and knocking the much older genin out. Sakura grinned and cheered loudly for him, ignoring the odd looks she was getting.

Screw it, she could be happy and obnoxious for her friend. Even if he didn't know that was what he was, she did, and she knew how much he needed it.

Naruto made his way back up to join her, and she grinned at him even as Kankuro and Lee were called out for the next match. That drew her attention away momentarily, mostly in worry about who would be facing Gaara, but she forced her attention off of it to congratulate him a little more quietly.

"Naruto, congratulations. You were great."

"Aah.. Thank you, Sakura-chan." He laughed, rubbing his hand on the back of his head.

A cry of surprise and pain drew her attention back to the match; Lee had shattered Kankuro's head. Well, the puppet that had taken Kankuro's place's head, at any rate.. And it looked like splinters had been driven through into the actual Kankuro. Lee rather mercilessly followed through, knocking Kankuro into the wall.

"Wow, he's quick." Naruto said, and Sakura realized Naruto hadn't seen Lee in action this timeline.

"Yeah." She agreed. "Konoha's doing pretty well so far! Of course, only one foreign team even made it here... Only two matches left in the round, too."

Unfortunately, the next match was going to be a disaster, it seemed - Tenten had drawn Gaara.

Sakura didn't even try to talk the other kunoichi into yielding. Tenten had never been a particularly close friend - not that Sakura had had many close friends - but Sakura had respected the weapons master and her will, and knew that the other kunoichi would never give up.

Sakura didn't even need to see the match to know how it would go, but she couldn't bring herself to look away. Naruto was cheering for Tenten, but the thrown weapons weren't even coming close to penetrating Gaara's defenses...

There was a shriek as Gaara's sand caught up to and crushed Tenten as Gai and the referee tried to step in. It wasn't as thorough as it would have been without interferance, but.. Sakura felt ill, leaning closer as the screaming for medics went through the arena.

Tenten was still moving, not completely dead yet, but... Sakura recognized the medics that were coming in. She'd passed all of them within a year of study; they were, in the end, not all that good. Nowhere near the level of Shizune or what she'd been at as a chuunin, much less Tsunade or Sakura's own peak. And Tenten looked like she was in worse shape than Lee had been, at least in terms of living.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, is she going to be okay?" Naruto asked, pleadingly.

An echo sounded, in her mind; HER Naruto, promising as she'd cried that they could fix everything. She couldn't let him fail that, not when he'd relied on her. But she couldn't just go down and heal Tenten, not without giving herself away. The mednins had her on a stretcher and were hurrying away with her...

"Naruto. Do you trust me?" Sakura asked, looking at the tunnel they'd vanished down.

"What..? Of course I do, Sakura-chan."

"Then.. I need you to do something. I'll explain later, but.. Can you make a clone and cover as though I'm here for a while?"

Naruto looked confused for a moment, but nodded; Sakura slipped out of another exit, transforming herself into a plain-looking brunette in a nurse's uniform. It wouldn't stand up to a very close inspection by a Hyuuga or by a sharingan, but it was better than nothing.

Sakura made her way to the medical facilities quickly, finding the room where three medics were desperately working on Tenten. And failing; the kunoichi's lifesigns were dropping, and she had to be losing blood quickly...

Sakura didn't have her own medical supplies or poisons anymore - they'd draw too much attention. However, it was an operating room, and even if they hadn't risked full anesthesia... There it was.

"Who.." began one of the medics, as Sakura moved, grabbing three vials from the shelf and smashing them on the ground, the chemicals mixing and reacting in a violent puft of purplish smoke. If they were good enough to counteract the effects on the fly, they'd have been good enough to help Tenten, Sakura decided, counteracting the poison's effects on herself.

The three medics collapsed, two unconcious and one moving to curl up in the corner, giggling madly. Sakura ignored her, knowing that was a common reaction. They would be fine, anyway, if with a bit of a horrible headache.

Tenten, on the other hand... Sakura frowned as she concentrated on the girl. There was no one wound to focus on, more a hundred little problems; bone fragments, and bruising, and internal bleeding. She was a mess, of course. Sakura took a deep breath in and set to work on the blood loss, the most immediate danger.

She had no idea of the time she'd spent on Tenten, really, but when she got the wounds below anything life-threatening, Sakura stopped. Her chakra was damn near bone dry, and she could hardly afford to pass out here. Besides, it wouldn't be long until...

"What is going on here?" Gai bellowed, stunning Sakura for a moment as she turned away. How had he approached without her sensing him? Was her chakra THAT low?

"Uh.." Sakura started, before smiling. "Your student is going to be just fine." She hadn't let the henge drop, thankfully; he wouldn't recognize her. Hopefully.

"And those three?" Gai said, gesturing to the other medics.

"Well..." Sakura started, not at all certain how to explain. There really wasn't any way to do so... Sakura thought about the layout of the building. She then reached her hand out, pulling a shelf off the wall at Gai, before turning and punching a hole through the wall, running through it. That was almost a signature, of course, but she could hope that noone would put it together with her attack on Kiba.

Sakura turned down the hallway, ducked into a supply closet, and climbed into an alcove in the top of that closet she'd known about - there were extra bandages and uniforms and the like stored there. She let the henge go out, conserving that last bit of chakra that was keeping her concious, shutting her eyes for just a moment and trying to think out the rest of her plan. She needed to rejoin everyone soon; if Gai had come down, the final match between Hinata and the other of Kabuto's teammates had to be over. They'd be drawing matches, and then everyone would leave.. That was it. She'd trust Naruto to cover for her this long, and meet him outside the building.

But it was even easier than that... Sakura smiled, dropping back down to the closet floor, listening carefully at the door for a couple of minutes. When she was certain noone was at the other side of the door, she stepped through, and then walked back towards the medical area. She saw several ANBU there, along with Gai. They looked over at her. "Uh, I'm trying to find Sasuke. Is he here?" She asked.

"He's under observation. I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave." The ANBU captain said, gestured to one of the ANBU by his side. Sakura avoided smirking as, as she'd hoped, she was not only let out of the building but escorted out.

She managed to catch up to Naruto before they reached the village proper, landing next to a clone disguised as her. "Hey, Naruto. Thanks."

Naruto looked interested, dismissing the clone. "Sakura-chan! Did you manage to find out anything?"

"She's going to be okay, it looks like." Sakura said. "Thankfully. Sorry it took me so long to get back, did everything go okay?"

"Um, yeah. There's a tournament in a month for the third part."

"I know." Sakura said, "Who did you draw?" She asked, sincerely curious. After all, the people remaining were totally different - there were only seven, for one thing.

Naruto actually frowned. "I've got Shino. I guess I should talk to Sasuke about him sometime... But Sakura-chan..."

Sakura tilted her head. "What?"

"You've got that Gaara person. Lee's fighting this guy who drains chakra that beat Hinata after you left, and Neji doesn't have to fight in the first round. "

Sakura stopped walking in shock. "I've got Gaara?"

Naruto nodded. "If we both win, we're fighting each other, too."

Sakura shut her eyes for a moment, letting herself feel the strain. "I think," she announced, "I'm going to go sleep and try to forget about that."

* * *

AN: Profile time again! This one's on our good friendly medic Sakura:

Name: Haruno Sakura

Classification: Jounin, Medic.

Background to current manga canon. (Chapter 469 or so, for reference.) Sakura's effort to kill Sasuke ended in something of a draw, as both of them got away okay. Sakura continued improving both her fighting style and her medical knowledge, eventually surpassing her master in both, but she wasn't able to turn the tides of war. Eventually, she and Naruto were the only ones left. At some point after her hunt for Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto became lovers; however, owing to circumstances, they were never able to marry or be a family. He attempted a jutsu to send both of them back in time to alter the fortunes of Konoha and their friends; while he managed to send Sakura back, instead of himself an alternate version of Sakura was drawn back to inhabit her body as well.

Sakura's temper has been calmed somewhat over the years, but the mental strain of dealing with her current situation is gradually growing worse, particularly as bad events that had not happened before happen. In particular, the death of Asuma gnaws on the mednin, as she knows that she's done something that's prevented Asuma and Kurenai's child from ever even being born.

While Sakura is far less eager to display her power compared to her alternate self, she has the world's most skilled medical mind locked up behind the 'bars' of not having sufficient chakra to use large chunks of her knowledge on a regular basis. Her enhanced strength and a deceptively dangerous taijutsu form are her best weapons for now, along with a truly impressive knowledge of poisons.


End file.
